Underneath The Underneath (KakaSaku)
by Lindt Luirae
Summary: Our past is what defines us; what shapes us into the people we are. And Sakura… Sakura would've never guessed Kakashi was the product of so much suffering. With every strange dream, another piece of the puzzle is found; and with every vision, they grow a step closer to completion. NEW PUBLISH DATE: 23/4/2017
1. Chapter 1

_**Hello dear readers, please don't freak out when you see that I deleted all 23 chapters of this story. I'm only rewriting it and making it (hopefully) better. It'd mean a lot to me if you'd go through this journey with me again. The basis of the story will be the same, but it's undergoing significant changes that I sincerely hope you like.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, KakaSaku would be a thing, and Itachi would definitely be alive.**_

 _ **Cover by the amazing artist and awesome friend Ameba-sama.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Things We Didn't Know**

She floated in a dream-like state, unaware of her surroundings, aware of nothing but her steady heartbeat.

Sakura felt like she had been locked inside her body. She could feel the blood rushing through her arteries into her lungs and the electrical impulses her brain was sending her organs, and mostly, she was vividly aware of her cells multiplying and dying rapidly. However, she was not scared; she knew she did the right thing.

She recalled how she ended up here, in this endless void.

* * *

"Kakashi," the cloaked figure croaked from the darkness within the nearby trees, voice urgent and thick with emotion. She held onto the rough tree bark, frozen in place, emerald eyes wide with gut-wrenching horror. She did not dare cross the tree-line, did not dare approach the still figure sprawled on the grass just ahead of her. Because if she did —if she, Sakura Haruno, with icy blood in her veins and the shaking limbs of her legs even began to manage to move— one of her worst nightmares might just spring to life.

The forest concealing her was eerily quiet, as silent as the void, but the stillness was deafening in her ringing ears and the thick humid air surrounding her threatens to suffocate her aching lungs. No reply echoes from the silver-haired figure, who didn't even twitch at the sound of her voice.

Sakura was terrified because even if the stillness didn't give him away, she couldn't trick herself into denying that there was no other chakra signature in the area but hers because the figure on the ground was mute. The figure on the ground wasn't emitting its natural cackling chakra.

Clenching her teeth to stop the tears from overflowing, she balled her hands into tight fists and took shaky steps towards the limp man who she came to view as a friend over the course of the last few months.

He was pale —so washed out that the crimson blood on his skin seemed all the brighter. It seeped from his neck, from his dirtied fingers, soaking his clothes and drenching his mask. He smelled like rust and mud and humidity, and it made Sakura sick to her stomach.

"Sensei," she whispered, feeling so incredibly vulnerable that she resorted to calling him by his old title. Sakura choked on her bubbling emotions and sank to her knees beside him, her trembling fingers flitting over his skin, searching for a pulse, searching for any sign of life, any sign that she could still save him.

The woman gasped when she felt the faintest of thumping against her index, and suddenly there's feeling in her fingers and thudding in her chest, as if the discovery of his living breathed life back into her.

A green glow engulfed her hand, and she pressed down on the gash in his neck, fighting to keep the little life left in him from escaping, but he was bleeding out rapidly, faster than her medical chakra was at knitting him back together, and she's become desperate —helpless— his life was literally seeping out from between her fingers.

"Please don't do this to me," she pleaded with his motionless form, her tears distorting her vision until they were rivers down her cheek, raining down on his face and smudging the blood on his closed eyelids.

Her hands were frantic, trembling and shaking under the strain of her medical jutsu as she pushed more and more into her palm until she hit her capacity's limit.

Sakura was running out of options. Clearly, there was no saving him this time. He depleted his chakra supply so thoroughly that the coils surrounding his organs were no longer functioning. And because they were no longer working to alleviate some pressure off his organs, his heart needed to work thrice as hard to keep him alive. But the blood that kept his very heart beating was now soaking her elbows and dyeing the crisp, green grass crimson.

Her whole body began to shake at the realisation. Kakashi was going to die, and she was stuck watching it happen. Her mind scrambled for options, tripping over solutions and struggling to fight her growing dread. She needed another medic —a bunch of them— but that wasn't an option, not really. They were miles away from Konoha, Kakashi would die before she even arrived there.

How could she let this happen? If she only made it in time, he wouldn't be in this position. They're a team, dammit, they're supposed to stick together. How did she ever think that splitting up was ideal?

All her training, all her accomplishments, every last bit of her medical knowledge meant nothing now; they were useless and— Sakura's thoughts came to an abrupt halt. _No,_ that wasn't true. There might be one thing that she _could_ do.

Sakura often prided herself on being able to think on the spot, like that one time she had to save Kankuro after the Akatsuki abducted Gaara. She was able to manually manipulate and extract the poison in his bloodstream and then conduct a complicated antidote in the span of one afternoon. Even she had to admit that was brilliant.

However this… It wasn't something she'd done before, neither was it particularly safe —scratch that, it was utterly insane. But there was nothing else to _do._ She reached for her pouch and retrieved a scalpel. Before she could weigh the pros and cons of her actions, she slit her wrist open and then did the same with Kakashi's. Her medical chakra immediately sprang back to life, scurrying to heal her without a second thought, but Sakura willed it to stop. Instead, she directed it to knit her veins with Kakashi's.

It was risky and highly dangerous, and she was sure no one in the history of shinobi ever attempted this —She doubted anyone short of Orochimaru would even ponder it. It didn't stop her. It was her last and only option.

It was lucky that she and Kakashi share the blood type 'O' otherwise this wouldn't work.

What she did next was something she'd done only once before. She tore off Kakashi's shirt before slicing open the side of his chest. Sakura grabs hold of his heart with her glowing fist and begins pumping it rhythmically to match her own. She has to be quick, knowing she'll start to grow dizzy soon and so she focuses completely on the feel of her blood running through their veins and her medical chakra knitting him back together from the inside.

She's unsure of how long she sat there beneath the bright moon, crouched over his body, her brain running a hundred scenarios of losing him, of what her life would be like without him, of how much she wished she spent more time with him. She doesn't kid herself into thinking Team 7 would even be remotely the same without him. It'd be like cutting off the oxygen supply of a COPD patient. Kakashi was what brought them together in the first place.

Just when she was sure his heart was working correctly on its own did she begin to tend to his external injuries with her non-occupied hand. But then Sakura did something foolish —something absolutely unforgivable; she passed out.

* * *

Sakura dreamt vividly, and despite not being present in the illusion, she did not recognise it for what it was: an illusion.

Down the street walked a happy family; a handsome silver-haired man and a gorgeous brunette held the hands of a little silver-haired boy that resembled his father more than any kid had the right. They're laughing at the way their son latched onto their arms and attempted to swing back and forth by pushing his legs completely off the ground, jostling his parent's motion and bringing them closer together as they both sought to support his weight.

The boy was tiny —no older than three-years-old— and he's beaming up at them like the sun itself, and she feels it all; his happiness, the father's adoration, the mother's undying affection. It clings to her like a life-support line, refusing to let go, bombarding her with a thousand emotions until she was sure she might explode from the rush of it all.

But it ends abruptly with a sting of pain.

Sakura's eyes shot open, and she bolted upright to realise Kakashi had stirred away from her and tore the connection between them, splattering blood across their pale skins— Sakura gasped aloud, as she came to the second realisation that she must've passed out sometime during her crazy attempt of keeping her teammate alive.

The sound woke Kakashi up who then looked up at her with bleary charcoal eyes.

"Kakashi!" She breathed joyously, her heart skipping a beat at the sight of his eyes opened. He looked like hell, but at least he was alive. That was all she could ask for and more.

"S-sakura?"

He looked so utterly confused, so hurt and in pain, it makes her heart ache. "Shh, don't move, that'll sting a bit."

She severs the connection between them, and he hisses in pain, his eyes widening in surprise. The medic quickly closes the wound, knowing that there'll forever be a scar there now, for the both of them.

Feeling like she's having the worst hangover of her life, Sakura wobbled onto her heels and helped him up.

"What'd you do?" Kakashi hoarsely whispered as Sakura helped him up onto his feet.

"I saved your life," Sakura replied as she hoisted him up on her back. He slumped forward with barely any resistance, completely drained of energy. "Go to sleep."

"Sakura—"

"Just trust me."

He didn't reply for several long seconds, but then she felt his face pressing into her shoulder, and that was all the indication she needed; yes, he trusted her.

* * *

The next time Kakashi awoke he was in a hospital bed with Tsunade checking over his vitals.

He blinked owlishly at the blond woman and needed a few minutes to understand what she was doing in his room; that is that he understood that this wasn't _his_ room but a _hospital_ room.

"You're finally awake," the Hokage stated, without bothering to turn around and look at him. "It's a miracle."

Kakashi swallowed a few times against his dry throat before he rediscovered his ability to speak. "E-excuse me?"

"You're perfectly healthy. Sakura performed a miracle." Tsunade went on, seemingly oblivious to his confusions and worries. "I can't even be mad at her. What she did was incredibly stupid, not to mention unhygienic, but she saved you."

Kakashi's memories were gradually returning to him. He had been fighting someone —their target— the masked man with the incredible strength they had been chasing for months on end. And he was so strong Kakashi barely stood a chance. It deeply unsettled him.

Was the loss of his Sharingan making him weak? How could the enemy be so out of his league if else? Because the man he fought felt like Sakura and Tsunade rolled into one —which should be virtually impossible.

Wait— what was the other thing Tsunade said? "Sakura? What did Sakura do?"

Tsunade pursed her lips like she tasted something unpleasant and Kakashi patiently waited for her to talk. "You were losing blood at a faster rate than she could heal you."

Kakashi blinked, slightly lost. "She gave me blood? How?"

He was sure she healed him in the forest, she had no equipment whatsoever… _Wait_ — the memory of the pain in his wrist rushed into the forefront of his brain, and he quickly located the scar on his skin. He shakily asked, despite having the faintest craziest idea of exactly what Sakura _did._ "H-how did she do it?"

The blonde woman grit her teeth, "She… god, I can't believe I'm _saying_ this, but she stitched your veins together and made it so that her blood ran through you, too. I _sincerely_ hope you're disease free Hatake, or else that'll cost the both of you."

The silver-haired man barely heard her. He was too focused on the fact that Sakura did the impossible. Was she that desperate? How close was he to dying?

Tsunade seemingly sensed his emotional turmoil and gently patted his shoulder. "Get some rest; I forced her to go home and change. She'll be back soon. She hasn't left your side in three days."

Kakashi blinked his surprise away and sighed heavily. "I've been out for three days."

"Five days, actually. You've been out for five days," Tsunade informed him.

His eyes widened, and before he could begin to ask another question, Tsunade excused herself and left. Why was she even tending to him? She's the Hokage; surely any doctor could watch over a sleeping man —right? Kakashi pondered these thoughts carefully, afraid of thinking of his pink-haired former student and how her actions did not help his conflicted feelings. For months now he's been having a strong, misplaced _yearning_ …

* * *

The room was dark and cold —so bone-chillingly freezing it made her shiver, even if she couldn't exactly feel her body or her presence. It didn't matter; she was too horrified by the sight in front of her to even comprehend where she stood at the moment.

From the wooden ceiling hung a thick rope, and to the rope hung the limp body of a silver haired man. Sakura's trained eyes took in all the signs; pallor mortis, rigour mortis, algor mortis —all signs of a body that had been dead for at least two days.

Her horror-stricken eyes trailed to the man's feet where a masked silver-haired boy that could be no older than six stood; motionless and as rigid as a rock except for the slight trembling of his tiny curled fists.

He moved mechanically, like a robot, as he grabbed a kitchen knife from the dining table and attempted to cut the rope to bring the body down. He sliced at his hand three times before he managed to, but he didn't even seem to realise there was blood trickling down his now badly shaking arms and dripping onto the ground.

The boy dropped the body onto the hard parquet floor and hopped off the table to join its side. He landed clumsily on his feet, and fell on his knees, his ankle twisting at an awkward angle as he reached forward to mat the dead man's hair back and revealed his unblinking lifeless black eyes.

Sakura watched the boy staring down at his father's dull eyes for what felt like forever, unable to move or to feel. Finally, the masked boy reached forward and closed his father's eyes with shaking fingers.

The medic could feel the turmoil of emotions roiling inside Kakashi —the name comes to her unthinkingly, her mind recognising the younger version of her former sensei. It showed in the slight tremble along his shoulders, even if his face remained as blank as the face of the man she came to know as a teenager.

Six-year-old Kakashi rose to his feet and stared at Sakumo's body for hours and hours on end, blood dripping down his hand and dyeing the hardwood red. The pouring rain rattling the ceiling was loud enough to drown out his harsh breathing and loud heartbeat effectively.

He never smiled again.

* * *

Sakura jolted awake in her bed, tears clouding her vision. She blinked them away, utterly dumbfounded. The sound of her heartbeat was loud in her ears, and she felt the muscle rapidly slamming into her ribcage as if she ran for days and had only stopped now.

Searching with bleary eyes, she located her bedside alarm clock. It read three-thirty p.m.

"Shit!" She swore vehemently and scrambled out of her sweat soaked bed sheets. When she agreed to go back home and shower, Tsunade made her promise to rest a little, so Sakura decided to take an hour long nap, but her alarm clock clearly told her she'd been asleep for at least ten. Apparently, she was much more tired than she realised she was.

Deciding to ponder her dream later, she hurriedly dressed up in her everyday attire and raced to the hospital to where Kakashi should be.

When she arrived at room four-hundred-twenty-eight and only found a made-up bed and a perfectly clean room, but no Kakashi, she began to panic. Her mind bombarded her with likely scenarios, the cynical voice in her head whispered that he could be dead —Sakura knew it was unlikely, but it didn't stop the horror engulfing her chest with a steel grip from nearly getting the best of her.

She rushed to the closest nurse, who stared at her with wide blue eyes, undoubtedly wondering what asylum lost its patient. Sakura knew she looked like death-warmed-over as she demanded to know where Kakashi Hatake is and why he wasn't in his room getting treated.

"Hatake-san has been discharged," the nurse —Ame, her name tag read— replied, slightly alarmed when Sakura's face twisted into a look of cold fury.

"By who?" The legendary medic spat, suddenly furious. How dare they discharge a man who nearly died just a few days after he'd been admitted to the hospital?

"T-Tsunade-sama," Ame yelped, taking a shaky half-step back. Sakura realised she'd been unconsciously emitting killing intent and that three nurses walking down the hallway froze to stare at her with wide, alarmed eyes.

Sakura clamped down on her frenzied emotions and forced herself to calm down. "He went home?"

"I-I think…" Ame whispered and only relaxed when Sakura gave her a tight-lipped smile and thanked her. The medic rushed to the hospital's kitchen, deciding she could do with some coffee before she faced her teammate.

It upset her that Tsunade decided to dismiss her patient without consulting her. Sakura had all but begged the woman to be Kakashi's doctor in her absence —she trusted the blonde to give him the attention he needed, and now she returned to find out he wasn't getting any attention at all.

* * *

"Yo!"

Sakura nearly sent her kunai through Kakashi's injured stomach were it not for his amazingly fast reflexes. He nimbly sidestepped her attack, twisting her wrist away from his body so that it pointed to the wall instead.

The medic's eyes widened, and she gasped in horror, immediately dropping her kunai when she realised what she was about to do. "I'm so sorry! Idiot, don't sneak up on me like that!"

Kakashi's eyebrows shot up his forehead, nearly disappearing behind his headband. He let go of her injured wrist, despite the fact that his eyes remained focused on the angry red scar running across it, and put some space between them. "You're awfully jumpy today aren't you?"

Sakura sighed, burying her face in her hands. Seeing Kakashi sent fresh images of her dream to the forefront of her mind and reminded her of his near death encounter from a few days ago _and_ worst of all plagued her with a tonne of near-crippling emotions. She shuddered and quickly redirected her thoughts to the important matter at hand. "What are you doing out of bed?"

"I was discharged." He shrugged, his eyes carefully roaming her face but she wasn't sure what he was searching for there. His eyes creased then. "But if you'd went along with your attack I guess I'd be sent back here."

"I'm sorry," she apologised again, awkwardly fiddling with the hem of her shirt. "Did you need anything?"

He raised the box of dango he was carrying to level it with her eye-line. "I have enough for two, thought I should share them with you —as a thank you for saving me."

Sakura mentally kicked herself for acting like an asshole. He was offering her some of his sweets, and she nearly punched a hole in his stomach.

"That's very nice of you thanks, let me just grab my coat," Sakura said, putting on a smile that she hoped didn't look forced. She wanted to have dango with Kakashi, but her horrifying dream was still jumping around in her mind. Not to mention the images of his limp body were still freshly imprinted in her memory, and all she wanted to do was tie him to a hospital bed and demand he stay put.

After grabbing her coat, Sakura exited the hospital with Kakashi by her side. He unwrapped the square dango box and held it up to her. She reached and took a tri-coloured stick of dango and quietly munched on it.

Should she ask him about her dream? She was scared of his response; it was after all a sensitive topic. But curiosity was eating her up! Her thoughts kept her distracted long enough for Kakashi to eat his dango without revealing his face to her and the ever watchful world of Ninja.

She resisted her nosiness —they weren't nearly that close for her to freely ask him about such things. Instead, she focused on the stick of dango she carried. "I just realised I don't know much about you sensei… I had no idea you liked dango."

Kakashi chuckled. "Ah, I don't care much for sweets, but dango is one of the few I can stomach. I don't know that much about you either, Sakura-chan."

"You don't, huh?"

"Nope."

Of course, he didn't. It's true they were much closer now than they were a few years ago, but that didn't necessarily mean they had heartfelt conversations or anything. Their friendship mostly involved them occasionally getting lunch together, sometimes going out for drinks and Sakura dragging him to a few festivals now and then to ensure he didn't rot away in his shabby apartment.

"How about twenty questions?" Sakura realised belatedly how stupid that sounded and she felt her cheeks heat up, especially when he raised a silver eyebrow at her. Did he think she desired to pick through his personal life and ask him awkward questions? She hoped not.

"Okay," he said after a moment, much to her surprise. She half-suspected he might ignore her request or say something snarky in reply. "Shall I start or do you want to go first?"

"I'll start!" she hurriedly said, feeling jumpy. Sakura could barely believe he agreed to go along with her childish game, but his eyes crinkled in a familiar smile and it made her relax, like always.

"What was your first impression of me?" she asked in a dramatically quieter voice. She reasoned that starting with a question concerning herself would erase any doubt Kakashi had about her interrogating him.

Kakashi's face scrunched up in thought, and she waited for his reply with bated breath. "That you were a sweet girl… that focused too much on Sasuke, and had amazingly bright hair for a ninja."

Sakura flushed in embarrassment. She was still absolutely horrified over her behaviour around the poor twelve-year-old Uchiha. Every time she remembered how she nearly drooled over the stoic boy, she wanted to punch herself into next week.

The look of repulsiveness on her face had Kakashi chuckling in amusement. "Okay, what was your first impression of me?"

Sakura smiled cheekily at him, glad for the distraction off her horrific memories from the most embarrassing period of her life. "My thoughts were something along the lines of 'who's this self-righteous bastard and why is he acting so cool.'"

She was momentarily startled when he threw his head back and laughed. Sakura was positive she never heard him laugh before. Sure, she'd heard him giggle (and he always argued that he _doesn't_ giggle) or chuckle, but never genuinely and outwardly laugh.

The pink haired medic couldn't stop the grin that spread across her face even if she'd tried; he had a nice laugh —deep and a little throaty.

"That's really sweet, Sakura," His laughter died into little chuckles. "You were all just a bunch of goofballs; I had to maintain the air of professionalism."

"You certainly did a good job. I was convinced you had no emotions," Sakura said nudging his side and his eyes yet again crinkled.

"Trust me, I very much do feel."

His comment made her stomach twist uncomfortably. Of course, he did, he _is_ human. Whether he showed his emotions or not didn't erase them in any way. Also _that dream…_

She swallowed thickly, quickly continuing onto the second question before she could think more about the mysteries surrounding her former sensei.

"Alright... how old were you when you signed your summoning contract?" Sakura asked —honestly she was curious, it took her months to learn how to summon, and she was sixteen when she did it.

"Nine." He shrugged nonchalantly and stared ahead, but she could tell he was trying to suppress a smile.

Her mouth fell open.

"Nine?" She asked incredulously. "Oh, Hokages, Kakashi that's insane. Wow."

Kakashi was glad he wore a mask because if not then she might've seen him blush. He'd get praise here and there, but something about having one of his ex-students so in awe of his abilities when she was practically a legend at the age of nineteen made his chest swell with pride.

By the end of the game, Sakura had learned a few things about Kakashi —some were trivial like his favourite colour (which to her surprise was blue, _not_ black) and some which left her gobsmacked, like the fact that he made Jounin at thirteen.

"Thanks for sharing your dango with me," she said sincerely when they reached her doorstep.

"Ah, it was a pleasure," he chirped with a look akin to that he displayed in one of her dreams when he was a carefree, happy child.

Without thinking about it, she hugged his middle section, burying her face in his uninjured shoulder. He seemed startled at the initiated physical contact but nevertheless patted her back comfortingly.

He smelled of pine, coffee and aftershave and he was _warm_ and _alive_ , and it contented her to her very bones. People often forgot about how much those around them mean to them until a tragedy happened and they nearly lost them. It reminded Sakura to never take anything for granted, including this contending safety she felt around him. It made her chest ache, and it caused her eyes to sting and her back to shake slightly, but she tightened her hold on him until she could breathe calmly once again. "Never do that to me again, Kakashi-sensei."

She felt his cheek press gently against her temple, and his voice reverberated through her skin when he replied, "I won't."

Sakura hesitantly pulled back, avoiding eye contact with him, her cheeks flushing brightly in embarrassment at her bold actions, and mostly because she could feel the wetness in her eyes and she didn't want him to see that.

"Goodnight," the younger of the two muttered. Her heart beat loud in her chest, and she felt an unfamiliar tingle in her heart, an ache she couldn't explain —one that became more pronounced when his warm hand pressed onto her head in an affectionate gesture.

She swallowed thickly and chanced a final glance at his face. He looked sincerely content. "Sweet dreams, Sakura."

* * *

 **Aaaaand you have that. If you're an old reader, and if it isn't too much to ask, please let me know your thoughts and if you liked this version better.**

 **If you're a new reader, welcome to the rollercoaster that's UTU! I hope you stick around to find out where this story is heading.**

 **Oh, and also, I'm looking for a beta. I need fresh eyes to spot them nasty mistakes. If you're interested, _please_ message me.**

 **BETA'D by Denilmo!**

 **Review for shirtless Kakashi ;-) -Rams**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Things We Learn**

It was humid and warm and there were two boys sprinting top speed across the green forest: a dark-haired boy wearing orange goggles over his forehead protector and a silver-haired masked boy she intuitively knew to be Kakashi.

Some of the images were distorted and didn't make sense —however, the face of the man that attacked them upon reaching a cave was vivid and detailed, and so was everything else afterwards. It was almost a little disorienting how focused, and sharp the images were.

One swift strike of the man's sword slashed through Kakashi's eye, and he cried out in pain and stumbled back, palming his bleeding injury.

"Kakashi!" The dark haired boy with the Uchiha crest on his back gasped and dashed to his friend's side. In a rush of emotions, the boy unlocked his sharingan and killed their attacker.

It nearly fooled her into believing it was a happy ending when the two boys found their female teammate in the cave and narrowly managed to escape. That was, until a large rock was suddenly pummeling towards the silver-haired boy, right in his blind spot, and suddenly the Uchiha was shoving him out of the way.

"Kakashi… Rin... are you okay?" Obito muttered weakly.

A rush of fear raced through Kakashi and through _her_ for reasons she failed to explain as the younger version of her sensei turned around to find his friend's side crushed beneath the boulder.

"Obito!" The girl cried, eyes filling up with tears and Kakashi froze in shock, his body going rigid.

Snapping into action, Kakashi rushed to the Uchiha's side and started desperately shoving at the rock that just wouldn't budge. "Ugh dammit, DAMMIT!"

"Stop Kakashi," the Uchiha boy coughed, blood trickling down the side of his chin. "I can't feel my left side anymore."

Kakashi looked away, his fists balling at his sides and his chest trembling slightly.

"I'm...the only one...who didn't give you… a present..." Obito coughed again, splattering blood on the ground next to his head. "At your Jounin celebration… right... Kakashi?"

Sakura's eyes stung with tears that didn't belong to her as she watched her former sensei look to his dying teammate with incomprehensible sorrow and anger.

"...What would be good… I was thinking… and now…. I've come up with it..."

Kakashi's eyes widened in surprise.

"What…? don't worry… it's not useless baggage…" Obito struggled to talk, coughing up more blood the more he tried to speak.

"It's… this sharingan of mine," Obito croaked, smiling shakily, his eyes rapidly fading in and out of focus.

Kakashi stared at him, stupefied, and Sakura's heart was suddenly, rapidly slamming against her rib cage.

"Please accept it," Obito murmured.

On the Uchiha's request, Rin started the lengthy transplant.

Obito kept talking, softly and hoarsely, his life escaping his body with each ragged breath. "I'm already… going to die."

Kakashi shut his eye tightly for a moment, swallowing back the tears that threatened to fall. "But... I can become your eye… and from now on I will see the future… take care of… Rin..."

Those were the Uchiha's last words, and as Rin finished transplanting his eye, Kakashi's Sharingan was crying tears and blood.

"Right," the masked boy whispered.

* * *

Sakura's chest felt tight as she lay in her bed, wondering _what the heck_ was happening to her and what all those dreams meant. This was her third one, and it was of events she lacked the knowledge of about people she barely knew. It made her wonder if she'd finally lost her mind.

When she dreamt about Sakumo's death (and it kept her up for nights thinking about it) she thought that maybe the history book she read a few nights ago was messing with her brain. They had an entire section dedicated to Sakumo Hatake, after all. Not that any of it praised him —quite the opposite in fact.

If the author hadn't been dead for well over a decade, she might've hunted him down and slowly and painfully castrated him. She knew the exact story of Sakumo from Tsunade, and it angered her more so because she knew she would've done the same as him. Hell, she knew _Naruto_ would've done what Sakumo did.

Sakura sighed. Thinking about it wasn't solving it or erasing it. What she needed to think about was their masked attacker and his anonymous group of ninja.

Very few people currently alive and on this earth could hold their own against Kakashi: Team 7, Might Gai and the Hokage being the only ones who could walk away alive. To think that someone… _something_ (because that sure as hell wasn't human) could nearly do to him what only Pein managed… it was unthinkable and utterly frightening.

"FOREHEAD!"

Sakura's sleep-deprived, exhausted and overworked mind registered an imminent attack, and she barely had enough time to roll out of the way before Ino Yamanaka came crashing through her open window with a flying kick aimed straight at her face.

"PIG!" Sakura shrieked as she landed on the hard floor with a loud thud, clad only in her floral print panties. "What the hell?!" The pink-haired woman sat up, arms covering her chest. "Ever heard of knocking?!"

"I _have_ knocked!" Ino glared fiercely, her blue irises doing a quick scan of her half naked best friend… and then her features morphed from irritated to amused in less than a second. "Oh my, Sakura, I see your underwear drawer has barely undergone any changes since puberty."

Sakura huffed and stood up, refusing to allow Ino to torment her over her choice of panties. "At least I _own_ underwear."

The blond stuck her tongue out childishly as if she were two instead of twenty and stomped to Sakura's closet.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked as Ino began to rummage through her clothes, sending piles of folded skirts onto the ground. "Ino!"

Before she could ask in what universe did the blond believe it was okay to mess up her neat closet, two items of clothing were flying her way, suspiciously close to her face. Sakura caught them in time, much to her friend's annoyance. "Get dressed forehead, we're going out for lunch."

Sakura had a snarky reply at the tip of her tongue, but Ino chose not to give her the chance to retort, cutting her off before she could speak. "You promised we'd meet on your day off. Now _get_ dressed before I drag you down the streets and flash your tits to everyone in Konoha."

The rosette belatedly realised that by catching the clothes Ino had flung her way, she left her modest chest exposed. Groaning she marched towards her private bathroom, face flushed red, knowing Ino never handed out empty threats and fearing for her modesty.

* * *

"And then he just left!" Ino groused, her eyebrows furrowed in displeasure. "I _get_ that he has this thing going on with her —he won't fuckin' admit it, but I _know."_

Sakura laughed nervously at the healthy dose of murderous intent her lunch companion currently emitted. "I think you're being too hard on him, Ino. You know Shikamaru; he finds everything troublesome. He's probably trying to figure things out for himself."

"But," Ino short of growled, "How come he must meet and approve of all _my_ dates before they become serious and I _don't_ get the same privilege? What a prick!"

The ginger waitress standing by the nearby table, just at the corner of Sakura's line of sight had begun to tremble slightly, and she noticed how pale the next table customers seemed to have gone. "Ino," Sakura said softly, without breaking eye contact with the elderly woman behind the blonde's shoulder. "You might wanna cut down on the killing intent before you give poor madam Kora a heart attack."

Crossing her arms, Ino huffed and turned to survey her surroundings with blazing eyes. After several moments of heavy silence, filled only with the sound of Sakura sipping her strawberry milkshake, Ino spoke. "Whatever happened to you with that mission?"

The rosette paused in her drinking and regarded Ino with wary emerald eyes. "You know it's classified right?"

Her best friend rolled her eyes in an overly exaggerated motion. "Sa-ku-ra," the blond scolded, raising a black and white badge in the air, an evil gleam in her eyes. "I'm authorised to know of this as head of the interrogation department."

Sakura's mouth fell open, all thoughts about her troublesome mission momentarily forgotten in favour of snatching the badge out of her friend's hand, and she nearly trampled over their lunch to get to Ino's side. "THEY PROMOTED YOU?!"

Ino gave the rosette one of her bright innocent smiles, the one reserved especially for when she was feeling particularly vicious in seducing her date and rested her cheek against her upturned palm. "That's right; your girl finally snatched the title from beneath Ibiki-ojisan's ass."

The head medic sat back in her chair in shock. "I… wow. Ino, that's incredible! I initially thought you weren't serious about this and only did it to fill out your father's spot. But I guess not."

Ino's smile turned a little sorrowful, and her voice quietened to a mere murmur. "Yeah… well, it's his legacy. He died fighting for Konoha and so will I."

Sakura reached for Ino's outstretched hand on the table and gave it a comforting squeeze, feeling a little guilty for bringing this particular topic up. "I'm sure he's proud of you."

The dull mood lasted another five seconds before Ino reverted back to her bright self and leant forward. "Enough of that. Now tell me about your mission!"

Sighing, the rosette braced herself for a long talk.

* * *

"Yo."

"Oh, hi," Sakura breathed, surprised to find Kakashi casually leaning against the door of her office the next evening, a bag of Chinese food in hand.

"A little birdie told me you finish your shift now," the silver-haired man greeted with a familiar eye crinkle.

"It is a generally known fact, I believe," the rosette teased as she went back to tidying up her desk, shuffling papers into stacks and returning pens to their holder.

"And that you're running on an empty stomach."

"Which in actuality is _not_ a generally known fact. That's one nosy birdie." Sakura crossed her arms and leant against the edge of her desk, finally turning to face her teammate and eyeing him warily. "You might want to tell me who it is so I can pay it a special visit."

She could see the edge of his mouth quirk up beneath the mask and knew he was amused. "I don't condone animal cruelty, Sakura-chan."

Sticking her tongue out at him despite knowing how ridiculous it'd look, she straightened her posture and approached him. "I'm assuming you want me to join you for dinner?"

"You assumed correctly." His eyes danced with concealed mirth. "Shall we go? I have a few things to discuss."

Sakura hummed as she grabbed her coat off the hanger by the door and paused by his side, extending her hand towards the door. "After you."

He rolled his eyes but complied, exiting ahead of her.

"You think they're on some form of drugs?" Sakura's eyebrows quirked up in surprise, her chopsticks pausing in their mindless noodle stirring. She had been trying to find the appetite to finish her dinner for a while now but she felt too full and now the noodles were too cold to taste remotely appealing. "Why do you say so?"

Her dinner companion paused in his own mindless noodle stirring and rested his chin on his upturned palm. "When I fought the masked guy… He kept trembling. His hands were shaking and… he had this wild look in his eyes, they were glassy and he kept muttering to himself and occasionally he'd lose his balance. It's hard to explain. It was too dark anyway, but I'm positive he was close to convulsing."

The rosette leant back against the foot of her couch, her pink hair fanned out across the teal cushions. They decided to have dinner in her apartment, Kakashi claiming that his own was not fit for visitors at the moment, and sometime during the middle of their meal, Kakashi brought up their most recent mission. She suspected it was the reason she lost her appetite; nothing like being reminded of nearly losing a teammate to destroy her hunger. She wondered what she could do with that piece of discovery…

"They might be." Sakura allowed, turning her head to face Kakashi. "We have no proof but it's a good starting point. I'll do some research, maybe ask Tsunade if there have been any rumours of new drugs being circulated amongst mercenaries."

Kakashi nodded and copied her posture by leaning back against the couch behind him. He seemed lost in thought —he had that faraway look in his eyes that told her he was recalling every detail of the fight. "They're really strong."

That earned him a sigh from the rosette. She'd been worrying endlessly about their enemy's supposedly godly strength. "Or perhaps I've gotten…" he trailed off, unhappily.

"Oh, get over yourself," she scolded in a sudden burst of irritation. "You can't start doubting or blaming yourself every time, Kakashi-sensei."

She belatedly realised how rude she sounded, snapping at him like that, even if Sakura fully believed she had every right to, he was technically-kinda-sorta still her captain. "I'm… sorry."

Kakashi didn't say anything for a while, instead staring at her ceiling with a blank expression until she began to believe she'd actually offended him. "Sensei…?"

Her voice seemed to snap him out of whatever thought-track he was on, and he turned carefully blank charcoal eyes to study her.

"Kakashi-san," he replied softly.

"Huh?"

"Call me Kakashi-san. We're equals," he elucidated. Suddenly, he straightened and stood up in one fluid motion, nearly startling her. "I should go home; it's getting late."

Sakura stole a fleeting glance at the clock hanging over her kitchen's entrance to find that indeed it was late; it read midnight. "Oh."

His eyes creased in a practised gesture. "Get some rest."

And then he was gone before she could offer to see him out, leaving her with more questions than answers.

"Ugh!" The rosette cried in annoyance, falling back on her sofa. There were at least a hundred and one thoughts dancing around in her over-worked brain, and his mental health was slowly but surely becoming one of them.

Admittedly, no ninja was ever truly sane and healthy, and most of them, especially ANBU, survived on sleeping pills. Kakashi was not only an ex-ANBU but probably a traumatised child. If he truly was the one to discover his father's corpse and cut off the rope that killed him at the age six, he was likely as far away from sane as one could probably get.

Thanks to her reoccurring dreams, and to his aloof persona, she was starting to worry about what sort of things he thought about at night, when he had nothing to do. Knowing from personal experience that brains seemed to fancy doing a play-by-play of past memories and failures when she tried to sleep, his brain probably did the same.

Well, it wasn't like there was much she could do about that, she reasoned. Taking his advice of resting, she got up and hastily cleaned the dinner table before heading to her bedroom, shedding her clothes on the way there. However, she thought, _even_ if she couldn't do anything about it, she'd be damned if she were to let him go through it alone.

* * *

 **It's a short chapter, but the next one will be longer. I decided to save shirtless Kakashi for the next chapter, sorry!**

 **By the way, I still haven't found a beta if you're interested.**

 **Update: this chapter has been beta'd by Denilmo !**

 **Let me know your thoughts, I greatly value feedback -Rams**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: All The Things I've Lost on You**

Something cold and hard pressed into her shoulder muscle, causing her to jolt in alarm. Sakura Haruno whirled around, ready to defend herself if a threat presented itself.

To her surprise Kakashi Hatake stood there with the same posture as that of a sixty-year-old man, looking uninterested, bored, and maybe sleep deprived if the dark circles under his eyes were anything to go by. She should've known it was him; he's one of the few who could sneak up on her if they wished.

One of his hands was tucked in his trouser's pockets and Sakura secretly suspected that he always held onto a weapon for when an enemy suddenly appeared. Let it be said Kakashi Hatake is cautious, and maybe slightly paranoid. Emerald eyes landed on the scroll he held up in his other hand and her eyebrows rose higher up her forehead inquiringly.

"We have a mission," he drawled, no introductions, no greetings, and it was moments like these that reaffirmed to Sakura that he was not a morning person.

"You found something?" she asked hopefully, pulling the scroll away from his hold and unrolling it.

He grunted, affirmative. "It's nothing substantial, but it's a shady town, and if there's a person out there looking to sell drugs that made you inhumanely strong, surely, they'd visit this area."

"Kamome Ao? Where's that?" Sakura wondered as she reviewed the mission details.

"Wind Country." He could not have sounded more apathetic. "I've been there before… very charming if you ignore the fact that everyone there wants to stab you and rob you of your valuables. Nothing you need to worry about, I'd feel sorrier for the ones that would come for you."

Sakura decided this was why she liked working with Kakashi so much: that arcane but undying belief in her abilities and his trust that she could handle herself without his interference. On the other hand, if it were Naruto he would've been proclaiming he'll protect her from any threat or pervs that might try to grope a feel by now. And if by an unfortunate stroke of fate Sasuke was her partner, he'd handle the mission himself; he never liked to depend on anyone that _wasn't_ Naruto. Finally, working with Sai was something like being on a solo mission; he barely spoke, he has his chakra concealed on a constant basis and he always walked a step behind her like her shadow.

"Let's go," she said, thrusting the scroll back at him. He caught it with deft fingers and shoved it in his backpack.

* * *

Watching Kakashi get them a room in a shabby motel, she wondered if she was an incredible medic or if he was simply superhuman. Sakura observed the subtle but lethal grace of his movement, and the concealed power she felt vibrating in his muscles in awe. If she met him today, she'd never know this was an injured man with a fractured wrist, broken rib and thirty stitches on his side.

Her sharp ears picked up the murmured 'thank you' he gave the old lady behind the desk and her eyes followed his every movement as he turned around and walked back towards her, a key in hand.

'How is it that someone with such bad posture could look and _feel_ so threatening?' Sakura wondered, slightly dazed as she got up and followed him to their temporary room.

Kakashi dropped his backpack on the green armchair in the corner of the room, discarded his vest and proceeded to fall back on one of two creaky beds with a quiet thud and a weary sigh.

Sakura rolled her eyes, unimpressed as she scanned the lazy figure on the bed. They had discarded their forehead protectors before entering Kamome Ao, and if possible his hair seemed even more disheveled and disarrayed as his bangs fell into his eyes and covered his temples.

He looked a little disarming if Sakura thought about it. She noticed his shirt has ridden up a few inches to expose a small patch of cream-coloured skin stretched tightly over lean abdominal muscles and well-defined obliques leading down to…

Sakura stared in wonder at the little silver coarse hair leading to the snug waistline of his trousers and disappearing behind it where a slight bulge… Her mouth suddenly felt really dry.

"Like what you see?" he teased lightly, eyes still closed and shifted ever so slightly that some more of his skin came to view.

The rosette looked away quickly, feeling her cheeks flame up in embarrassment at being caught ogling her former teacher. "S-shut up!"

Chuckling, Kakashi sat up, his shirt thankfully falling back to place. "Just teasing, Sakura-chan."

Sakura huffed in annoyance and busied herself by rummaging through her bags for her storing weapons scroll. "We should explore the area."

"I know every nook and cranny but if you want to see for yourself, sure." He shrugged as he pulled himself up to his feet and stretched with a quiet groan.

"When did you come here anyway?" she asked, heading for the door with him a few steps behind.

"Hmm…" He hummed thoughtfully as he matched her pace. "I think five years ago." Sakura glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and he crinkled his eyes at her. "Don't worry, this is just an information gathering mission, in all likelihood nothing will go wrong."

His teammate sighed and nodded. "Where do we start?"

"Oh, I know just where."

* * *

"A strip club?" Sakura looked at her former teacher with open surprise and tried to conceal her unease. "Why and how would we find information here?"

"It's a small shady town, Sakura-chan," Kakashi chuckled easily as they walked in as if they weren't about to be greeted by all kinds of nudity. "Everyone comes here."

It was as if the mere action of stepping into the building had infected her hearing and now she was receiving double meanings from his sentences.

Her cheeks flamed at his words, much to her partner's confusion, and she reddened even further when they arrived at the entrance of the club. At the stage in the centre were eight women in varying degrees of nudity, and even if Sakura was a medic and she knew anatomy like the back of her hand, watching these woman dancing and presenting their bodies to the world made her blush like a little school girl —okay, maybe it wasn't the nudity (that never _really_ bothered her) but more the fact that Kakashi was standing right next to her, charcoal eyes surveying the place.

Forcing her eyes to remain on him, even if that threatened to make all the blood in her body distend in her cheeks, she saw the disinterested, almost bored look in his eyes as they flitted quickly over every corner of the room, as if he wasn't a few feet away from eight half-naked females with a bunch of bills tucked in the little g-strings they wore, men hollering and whistling at them.

Actually, one of those women, a busty redhead with chocolate brown almond shaped eyes and the prettiest alabaster skin, had her eyes fixed resolutely on Kakashi.

Sakura's eyebrows shot up curiously as she saw her former sensei's eyes pause at the red-head, who gave him a suggestive smile, and give a little subtle head shake.

His eyes crinkled in an almost apologetic smile and then Sakura's delicate wrist was his firm hand's captive and he was guiding her away through a sea of sweaty bodies and seating her in one of the red leather stools at the bar.

Sakura was thoroughly confused now. It was barely six in the evening, and this place was already bustling.

She felt the waiter's heavy gaze on her and quickly ordered a drink.

"Stay here and keep an eye on anything suspicious," Kakashi ordered. "I'll be right back."

Sakura nodded dazedly and turned in her seat to receive her drink from the blond waiter, who smiled rather enticingly at her when their eyes met. "Nice hair, is it natural?"

Let it be said that Sakura got that a lot. Nodding, she took a sip of her drink, eyes trained on the man behind the bar. He resembled Naruto a little with his shaggy blond hair and sparkling blue eyes, but his jaw was sharper and his skin was much lighter; in that area, he was more like Sasuke.

He offered her a napkin over the bar when the perspiration of her drink wet her hand. "And what's the pretty lady's name?"

Was he... flirting with her? Sakura blinked her surprise away and smiled politely back at the man. "Sakura. Yours?"

He laughed and it was deep and throaty, a sound she'd expect from a tougher looking man. "Sakura? Man, that suits you. I'm Saguru, it's a pleasure."

Resisting a blush, she gave him a nod, a small smile and turned around to survey the place.

There were a few men eyeing her with open interest and mild curiosity, and some with the kind of hungry look that made her want to shiver in disgust and look down to make sure her clothes were in place because their gazes made her feel as naked as the women on the raised platform.

Ignoring these men for the sake of her sanity, and chanting in her mind that this is a _strip_ club and that she can't pluck anyone's eyes out even if they were eyeing her like a piece of meat on display, she looked around, refusing to meet anyone's eyes.

What identified as suspicious in a place like this? Because Sakura could point out multiple things.

Like the lonely looking man at the corner of the bar a few seats away from her who had a drink in hand but didn't talk or look at anyone. But then again, she was doing the same. The only difference was that she was here to gather information.

There was also the group of gangster looking men near the toilets smoking cigars and not looking at the dancing women or talking to anyone but themselves. One of them had a suitcase in his hand, and it really looked out of place with his attire. He had a sleeve tattoo spiralling up his arm, although Sakura couldn't see exactly what it was in the dim light, and he had two piercings in his left ear. A huge man he was, what with the bulgy muscles in his biceps and broad shoulders.

"Mhmm..." the medic hummed as she focused her glare on him, knowing he'd turn to face her at some point.

As if feeling the weight of her gaze on him, the man turned around giving her a view of his profile. He had a brown beard and a nose ring and surprisingly neat looking eyebrows compared to how coarse his beard hair looked.

Here we go, Sakura thought, clamping down on her unease and giving the man what she hoped was a flirtatious smile.

His smile turned predatory the moment his eyes landed on her and she resisted a shiver. She's a grown kunoichi on a mission, this is _easy_ stuff, although that really didn't make it any less unpleasant as he stalked toward her. Oh well, if push comes to shove, she'd win in a fight, even if he's thrice her size.

"Hey, there pinkie."

 _Oh, he's already begging to be punched_. Nevertheless, she gave him a half-lidded smile. "Hey, you."

He set the suitcase on the carpeted ground and she wished Kakashi was here to try and peek into it while she distracted this pig-head. "What's a cute little girl like you doing here all by herself?"

Sakura's eyebrow twitched imperceptibly at being called 'little' but she resisted the growing urge to slug the man and leant forward, letting her ankle brush his leg. "What's a tough looking man like _you_ doing here?"

It was a stupid retort, but the man seemed thoroughly distracted by her legs. His green eyes followed the curve of her calf where their legs touched, trailing up her milky legs to her slim thighs and although it made her feel like she was being eye-raped, she focused on brushing her leg further up his, dangerously close to his upper thigh.

"Business," he said dismissively, his eye now focused on her ankle brushing against his thigh.

"Yeah? What business do you do?" Her voice decreased to a warm murmur and when he replied his voice, too, had fallen and wobbled slightly. "Y'know... this and that, selling and buying,"

Sakura decided she needed to up the game and let her hand rest on his knee as her other supported her chin on the bar counter.

Scratching his knee lightly with her green painted nails she let her hand inch further down his thigh. "Yeah? That sounds interesting. What do you sell?"

His hand came to rest on her thigh and she resisted the impulse to shove him off, instead, she gave him an inviting smile. _Ugh, men are such pigs…_

"Medicine," the nameless man said, his darkened gaze shooting up to meet hers. "What do you say we go somewhere more... private?"

 _Bingo,_ she had him. Now if she managed to take him out the back door, she could knock him out, and see what's in the case for herself.

She felt a distinct prickle along her neck and the hairs on her back stood as she felt the weight of someone's stare on her. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kakashi's charcoal eyes resolutely fixed on her and quickly looked away. It wouldn't do to be distracted now.

Instead, she jumped off her seat and grabbed hold of the bulky man's sweaty palm, reeling in her disgust and giving him a flirty smile as she began to drag him away. "Sounds great."

Her prey followed obediently, unaware of the danger surrounding him. It was times like this Sakura was glad for her non-threatening appearance, it just made her job so much easier.

Even if being underestimated made her blood boil –one could only look at the positive aspects of things to keep their head on right.

The back door was also the fire exit and it was made of heavy metal so she pretended to struggle with opening it to get the brown-haired man to do it and in turn move him to walk in front of her.

Perfect, the kunoichi thought gleefully when her companion did just that. Now was her chance.

The second the door behind them clicked shut and they were out in the fresh crisp air, the man whirled around and shoved her roughly against the brick wall of the club, mouth pressing against hers.

Sakura didn't waste any time as she dragged her fingertips to his skull and sent a pulse of chakra to his brain, targeting the part responsible for sleep. Five seconds later, he collapsed into her hold.

She shoved him off, disgusted, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand hoping to get rid of the unpleasant feeling of his lips. His kiss was sloppy and her mouth felt gross.

Quickly, she crouched by his suitcase and pushed it open to find multiple syringes filled with a cobalt blue liquid.

Sakura grabbed hold of four needles and thrust them in her pouch. She stood up just as the fire exit door opened to reveal her silver-haired partner.

"Do you have them?" He eyed the man on the ground and the look of triumph on her face.

"Yep," Sakura said as she began to drag the knocked out man to the nearby dumpster and shoved him behind it with minimal effort.

She dusted her hands and turned to face him. "Let's go."

* * *

Kakashi pursed his lips as he watched Sakura drag her ankle up the man's thigh and slowly reel him in with her charm. That woman is dangerous, very dangerous, but that's what makes her oh-so-enticing.

Ever since the fourth ninja war, something changed in their dynamic and most evidently, something changed in the way he viewed her. He wasn't sure when he started to think of her as a beautiful, successful woman instead of his former student but he was helpless to stop his change of perspective, so instead, he let himself be reeled in.

Sakura Haruno was not his student or partner, she was his friend. And one could find their friends beautiful… right? It was perfectly okay to feel affection for one's friends, too. An impressive kunoichi she was, indeed. Kakashi could admire her dedication and he definitely could give credit where credit is due, and Sakura truly was the epitome of change brought on by hard work.

So why was it that watching her do her job now gave him an unpleasant twinge?

Watching Sakura lead their target outside gave him the irrational urge to intercept them, but he resisted the confusing impulses his brain was giving and followed for the sole purpose of helping his partner if she somehow struggled with the man. God knows they learned their lesson the hard way the last time they separated.

But at the end of the day, she didn't require his assistance, and they were back in their rented room within the hour.

His partner yawned as she trudged towards her bag and pulled out a change of clothes. He couldn't help but watch as she pulled on a form-fitting comfortable-looking pair of leggings beneath her skirt before pulling off the article of clothing from above it. It wasn't like this was the first time she changed in the open, they've been a team for years and years for one to really care for modesty but still, Kakashi was enticed.

Especially when she faced away from him and discarded her shirt. He was met by the sight of her ivory skin marred by old faded scars and one particularly angry looking wound running across her side. The scars didn't lessen any of her skin's appeal and he knew they were inevitable in their field of work. His back was a battlefield by itself from years of taking on S-classed missions and facing lethal opponents.

Not to mention his most recent brush with death. His charcoal eyes sought out the scar on his wrist —he'd been doing that rather frequently— and noticed how it had faded from an angry red to a tender pink.

His chest tightened for no comprehensible reason as his eyes traced his injury.

"Does it still hurt?"

Her voice pulled his attention and he looked up to meet a pair of distressed emerald eyes. It took him a moment to realise she was referring to his wrist injury and was quick to shake his head. "Oh, no, not at all… I was just thinking and I never really properly thanked you for what you did."

Sakura smiled sadly at him, and he was momentarily at a loss for words at the way his heart lurched. "You're very welcome."

She moved to his side and gently pressed down on his shoulders to sit him down on the edge of his bed. "Let's get you checked up, now."

Kakashi sighed and moved to remove his shirt. He'd had two checkups since he left the hospital, one which Tsunade performed and the other which Shizune looked after. It seemed Sakura wanted to see results for herself. As much as he hated being fussed over, he appreciated her care to see that he made a full recovery in record time. Nevertheless, he protested, "I'm fine, Sakura."

"We'll find out in a minute," the rosette said, unconcerned as her palm glowed green. Kakashi shrugged and let himself relax back against the mattress as she did her work.

* * *

There's something about the bodies of male ninjas that Sakura found fascinating. Most of them are made of hard muscles and beautifully crafted contours from years of strenuous exercise and Sakura could admire that but what made each one unique is the particular set of scars that marked them.

Naruto, for example, barely had any scars, but that's thanks to his Kyuubi chakra. However, there's one right next to his heart from when she saved his life in the war and that's a story by itself that Naruto was always proud to tell. And apparently, the loss of his right arm, but that he doesn't really talk about.

Sai, on the other hand, has plenty. Hundreds and hundred of wounds covered his body from his time in ROOT, running down his arms, across the broad expanse of his shoulder and down his thighs. Some of which Sakura could tell were critical and life threatening. It's amazing how much one's injuries and scars could speak of one's ninja career and Sakura could say Sai's was full of hardships.

Sasuke was a different case. He's not one to show off his flaws nor does he care to hide them. His most prominent one is the left-overs from Orochimaru's cursed seal. That is if you ignore the stump of his left arm right above his elbow. Till this day he refuses the prosthetic the hospital offers. Added to that are a few sharp cuts littering his torso Sakura suspected were caused by a sword.

Kakashi's body was an entirely different story. Admittedly she's only seen his upper body and on rare occasion so she couldn't help but take the time to study the numerous cuts in her access.

The 'X' shaped lines bisecting his chest she knew he received in the war is his most severe looking scar. The other harsh looking injury he has is a line of scarring tissue across his hip. She could tell it must've been a life-threatening injury from its width and how close it was to his kidney.

Before she could think better of it, her fingers flitted lightly across the diagonal line. Kakashi stiffened immediately but didn't push her away.

"What's the story of this?" She asked quietly, letting her thumb trace the outline of the mark with an unnecessary care.

It took Kakashi a few long, tense moments to respond. "When Genma and I were on our first ANBU mission together, we were attacked by people we thought were our allies and their forces nearly overwhelmed us."

Sakura hummed, her eyes moving to lock with his as she waited for him to continue with the story. Kakashi took a weary breath and said, "Genma was still new to the whole ANBU thing so he had less experience than me and was an easier target to them… I remember one came at him from behind and the other from the front and there was no way to block both so he had to choose the enemy that could possibly cause him more damage to eliminate."

"And you stepped in?" Sakura guessed correctly, her green eyes round and wide.

"Yes. It was stupid, I had no prepared counter attack, it should've killed me," he admitted, sounding just a little embarrassed but he kept his gaze locked with hers. He wasn't one to shy away from admitting past mistakes. He's had quite some time to accept them and move on.

Sakura looked away and back at his torso. There's one scar right at the edge of his trouser's waistline, a faded white mark that she traced without conscious, unaware that her companion was suddenly holding his breath. "And this?"

"Sword," he said shortly, and he sounded a little breathless. "I was trying to protect Ten— Yamato— and fight at the same time. But it's difficult to wield two swords against tough opponents."

The medic was thoroughly absorbed in this discovery, and her fascination showed on her face.

"I messed up." He told her, and she was surprised that he was opening up so much to her. "Tenzou was severely injured and so was I. I was trying really hard to prevent anything from harming him but that's stupid, we're ninja, we get injured all the time."

"We do," she agreed, her eyes drifting involuntarily to the scar on his wrist.

Suddenly Kakashi had her wrist between his thumb and forefinger and he was staring at her with incomprehensible regret, it made her breath hitch in her throat. Never has she seen him look so… remorseful.

His thumb flitted soothingly over her scar. "I'm really sorry you had to do this to yourself, Sakura."

Swallowing thickly at the suddenly unbearable tension in the room, Sakura cracked a shaky smile and pulled her wrist free of his hold. "Please don't be silly, I'll always pick your life over an inconsequential injury."

Kakashi moved his hand back to his side, his face once again an unreadable mask. "Yes, of course."

"Now hold still, this will take only a few minutes."

* * *

 **Aloha dear readers, I present to you chapter 3. I hope you like it. I finally have a beta so expect fewer mistakes! I'll have her go over chapter 1 and 2 asap and fix all the errors.**

 **Please review! I appreciate feedback and** **criticism. And also because it's my birthday tomorrow and it'll make me happy**

 **Beta'd by the awesome Denilmo!**

 **-Rams**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: A Twist Of Thoughts**

Kakashi Hatake was sleeping when he heard the frustrated cussing of his teammate and the angry shuffling of papers.

"What's wrong?" he mumbled sleepily into his pillow, content with staying there for a few more minutes. He'd only been asleep for a few scarce hours and his head was pounding.

"I think we got the wrong guy."

At that, his eyes did open —rather reluctantly— and he sat up with a sigh. "Wrong medicine?"

She nodded, her lips pursing unhappily. "Can you believe he wasn't actually lying? It's not drugs. It's medicine. A liquified form of concentrated sleeping pills for PTSD patients."

 _Great,_ Kakashi thought numbly and ran a hand through his silver hair. "We'll go back and investigate again."

Sakura grumbled something under her breath and trudged back to her bed. "I've been up all night; I'm gonna rest a bit."

Kakashi nodded as he watched the kunoichi crawl into her bed, hair disheveled from frustrated pulling and tugging and eyes slightly smudged from the little eye make-up she wore.

She buried the side of her face in the pillow and shut her eyes. Unaware that he was watching her, his teammate pulled the blanket up to her waist and relaxed. Kakashi followed the little bit of skin the motion extracted as her shirt rode up, all smooth and taut, and he swallowed thickly as he forced himself to look away.

To his frustration, the pink-haired woman made the most inviting picture just lying there in what was supposed to be an absolutely innocent activity. That introspection greatly unsettled him. Sakura's soft snoring filled the room and he looked over once again to find she'd already fallen asleep, her chest gently rising and falling in her thin shirt, her plump lips slightly parted as she exhaled, looking—

Kakashi mechanically got up and grabbed a towel and headed for the bathroom. Enough was enough and his thoughts weren't helping, so he decided to shower to collect his messy head. Lazily, he discarded his shirt and took a few moments to study his wounds in the mirror. The stitches in his side were healing nicely and the few bruises he sustained had faded to a light red colour that he knew would vanish soon. His eyes paused at the scars on his hips and he took a quiet shaky breath as he recalled how Sakura had trailed her fingertips across them. He hadn't expected something as clinical as being checked up to turn quite so intimate. The worst part was, he wasn't sure he minded.

Groaning internally at the direction of his musings, he rid himself of the remnants of his clothes and hopped in the shower.

The water, even when warm and soothing to his aching muscles, made his whole torso sting as wet droplets found their way to his cuts. The momentary discomfort distracted him long enough to wash his hair in relative peace. Unfortunately, that peace dissolved soon afterwards. He should've known; showers are where people contemplated life, not suppressed ruminations.

He was worried about a few things that refused to leave his brain and let him enjoy the tranquility of washing. They had assumed they found the right guy, but it turned out he wasn't who they were seeking. Just a man with a shady character but surprisingly good intentions. Although Kakashi could've sworn he was a jerk from the way he had been eyeing his teammate.

Oh, who was he _kidding?_ What person who wasn't blind and claimed to be in the 'straight male' circle wouldn't look at Sakura? She'd always been one of the more exotic looking females with her unique pastel hair and bright emerald eyes. Besides, not even he could deny the fact she had the nicest, subtly lean legs. Speaking from a male perspective, it was hard not to notice her. Speaking from _his_ perspective… well, he did find her attractive (a slightly alarming conception) but he was also drawn to her personality, which he found strange.

Sakura could be loud and, on rare occasion, brash. Those weren't traits he was particularly fond of but he found it kind of cute when her cheeks reddened and she snapped at the unfortunate soul that managed to offend her. Instead of finding it annoying, like he might with anyone else, he discovered it was hard to look away. Something in the way her green eyes narrowed dangerously and her muscles coiled tightly, ready to spring and give anyone a piece of her mind was rather enchanting and well, attractive.

Kakashi frowned, scrubbing across the bottom of his foot rather harshly until it was red and definitely clean.

Sakura was still the same Sakura from two years ago; it didn't make sense for him to only discover an attraction now. Maybe the weird visions he'd been having had something to do with it…

Sakura Haruno wiped at the corner of her mouth where she sensed drool collecting, and visibly winced when she opened her eyes and found Kakashi looking at her, likely having sensed the change in her breathing pattern. She sat upright, feeling her cheeks colour in embarrassment. "Uh… G'morning."

"Afternoon, actually," he corrected with an eye crease as his head tilted towards the alarm clock between their beds. True to his words, it read two p.m.

"Good afternoon," she amended shyly and got up to stretch her limbs, then yawned tiredly.

"I'll wait for you to shower and then we can head out and look for those men again," Kakashi told her, closing the little orange book he was previously reading.

"Actually," Sakura intercepted, "I was thinking, and do you remember how we came across that guy— girl? whatever they were?"

"I think it was a man," Kakashi said carefully, "and what do you mean?"

"Well…" The rosette murmured thoughtfully as she leant back against her bed, still rubbing the sleep out of her eye. "We were on an S-ranked mission, but we barely encountered anything potentially dangerous during the mission… for us, at least."

"This isn't the first time a mission had the wrong ranking," Kakashi gently reminded her, thinking back to their first mission together in the Land of Waves where their C-ranked mission became an A-ranked mission.

"Yes, but this mission should have been a lower rank. Why pay more, especially now when every village is financially unstable? So think about it this way, by requesting you take that mission, they would need it to be higher ranked, otherwise, any shinobi would suffice…" Sakura trailed off, running an unsure hand through her pink strands and Kakashi's eyes widened as realisation began to sink in.

"You think they lied about the mission ranking so they could request me without sounding suspicious?" He deduced in one breath.

"Yes." Sakura breathed, glad he seemed to catch on.

"But we were attacked after the mission, not during. Besides, why do they want me? I no longer have my sharingan so it wouldn't make sense that someone would be after me." Kakashi frowned contemplatively. He really didn't like where this was going.

"But what if they aren't after you? What if they're after _me_?" Sakura pointed out, attentively. "As a medic, we're typically partnered together. It's very likely they were depending on you to bring me along."

Kakashi's breath caught unexpectedly in his throat as he recalled a tidbit of a memory that had been forgotten until this moment. "He… he asked about you, where you were. I thought I imagined it, I mean, I was about delirious at that point and I was worried you were in the same state as me…"

It all suddenly made sense. Sakura and Tsunade were the only two shinobi known for their inhuman strength and precise chakra control, the only two shinobi with the Strength of a Hundred Seal. And those people exhibited alarming brutality. If their purpose was to have inhuman strength similar to that which Sakura and Tsunade possessed, did it mean that by capturing Sakura they would acquire the information needed to further develop the drug they made? Since Tsunade was Hokage and virtually untouchable, it was just reasonable to go after Sakura.

His fists clenched.

Sakura sat back with a preoccupied expression. She didn't seem particularly concerned by that discovery. "I mean, they attacked right after our mission, right after we crossed the border between Stars and the Sound, and he chose the moment we briefly separated to attack so maybe he was sure he'd be able to defeat you to cut my back-up and then come for me?"

"But he didn't come for you." Kakashi pointed out with a hopeful tone that threatened to make a smile twitch her lips. His protectiveness inspired a feeling of warmth in her chest.

Sadly, her next words killed that hope. "I was concealing my chakra, and our earlier fall into the river washed off any scent they might've needed to track me. I _did_ make it seem like I ran away."

Her face was carefully monitored and free of expression, but the anguished look in her emerald eyes threatened to choke him. "Sakura," he began, wishing to comfort her, to let her know he would never doubt her loyalty to him, that he knew she'd never abandon him, but she firmly shook her head.

"Don't," she cautioned, frowning, but he wasn't sure if the displeasure on her face was aimed at him or herself. "It happened, and there's no changing it."

"We're both _alive,_ " he insisted in what bordered on a pleading tone. "Isn't that all that matters?"

Sakura was silent for a few long moments before she sighed and hugged her knees to her chest. For just the few next minutes, she looked incredibly vulnerable, which was not a word he'd ever use to describe her.

"Listen," she uttered quietly, not really meeting his eyes. "It was bad planning on my part, I screwed up and I'll own up to it. You ended up in that state because of me."

"Goddammit Sakura, seriously!"

The rosette looked up at her teammate, somewhat startled at the exasperation and forcefulness of his words. He was on his feet approaching her and when he was a foot away, he crouched between their beds by her legs and forced her knees down from her chest, grasping tightly at them with one hand while the other found her chin and gently forced her to look him in the eyes. "We were _attacked._ We had no way of anticipating that someone was after you _or_ me. You did the right thing by staying back and not engaging with an unknown hostile force. If you had, we might've been at a bigger disadvantage because if both of us were wounded, chances are I would've died and you would've been captured."

Sakura swallowed thickly against her constricting throat and finally stopped struggling against locking gazes with him. She saw so many things in his dark orbs, many emotions, as loud as they were silent; forgiveness, understanding, affection, and most heart-wrenchingly _relief._

Relief that she was safe.

Her heart twisted painfully in her chest and it took quite the struggle not to allow herself to tear up. It'd been eating her up at night, in her sleep, in her free time. Killing her slowly every time she recalled that he nearly died because she stood back instead of fighting with him.

"I will always, _always,_ put my teammates first." He said with utmost sincerity.

Sakura couldn't help it, she cried.

* * *

After going back and hitting another dead end, their reconnaissance turned out to be a failure, and they decided to head back. The travel back to Konoha took them a day, and during their lengthy walk, Sakura yet again pondered the sudden change in their dynamic. Kakashi was not an affectionate person by any stretch of the imagination. It was true he cared for his teammates and friends, and that he valued teamwork above all else, but it was also apparent how much he struggled with letting people in.

Generally, he wasn't a man of many words. He was decidedly an actions-speak kind of guy. Not that his actions ever truly made sense to most people. No one really understood why he walked around reading smut in public and was chronically late to everything. No one knew why he wore that mask or the reason he lived on the outskirts of Konoha.

Sakura knew he had his own reasons, probably related to his past —probably something very personal and very sensitive that no one dared ask. She wasn't about to be the first one. But with her it was different. Other people didn't have dreams of Kakashi's supposed past. Other people didn't watch him watch his best friend die or his father's dead corpse at his feet. Other people weren't privy to his emotions the way she was.

Did the dreams make any sense to her? _Not at all._ But they weren't stopping and their frequent re-occurrence assured her they wouldn't be any time soon. It worried her endlessly, as did most things she failed to understand.

Dreaming of someone's past seemed a little silly vocalised, not to mention, completely absurd. Stuff like that didn't happen outside of books and even if in their world impossible things consistently ended up being proved possible, there was a degree —a line— thatwas never crossed.

This bordered on insanity. Sakura lost count of how many times she questioned her sanity since the start of her dreams. What if she had actually lost her mind and now her brain was constructing a background story for her former sensei? It wasn't unheard of for a shinobi to just snap one day. Maybe she should talk to someone about this, someone that wasn't Kakashi and someone who wouldn't outright laugh at her. There really were only two options: Tsunade and Ino.

Tsunade was a medic like herself and would be able to accurately diagnose her if she honestly was losing her mind and Ino had her clan's jutsu and could probably see into her mind and find out what was wrong with it.

Sakura knew Ino had a better shot at finding out what was the matter with her, but Sakura was hesitant for a reason: what if those dreams, however unlikely, were _really_ Kakashi's past? Did she want to expose that to _Ino?_ Just because the blonde was her best friend it did not make her and Kakashi close in any way. She hated how the entire population of Konoha danced around him like he was some kind of mystery that must be solved and laid bare. She could agree that he was mysterious and that as a kid, she tried to peek under his mask, but everyone else seemed to take it a step further than that, going as far as to try to spy on the man in his free time and following him around in hopes of finding out more about his habits.

 _He must find that suffocating,_ Sakura bitterly concluded. No wonder he hated socialising and being in public and crowded gatherings. Everyone inevitably made it centred around him and the latest rumours concerning him ranged from what colour underwear he wore to if he was gay.

But all that aside, it made sense for her to feel closer to him because of her dreams. What did not make sense was the reciprocated… affection he seemed to hold towards her. The extra care, the bounteously open approach, the more trustful gestures. It was as if he was letting her in, and that really didn't make any sense on his part. She wanted to ask but she didn't for two reasons. One, she didn't want to sound stupid; two, she didn't want to lose this bond they recently developed.

They arrived at Konoha with these thoughts still swirling around in her head and immediately reported to the Hokage, who insisted they rest for a few days before they investigate the Star's real intentions. Such claims were dangerous and could threaten the peace they so desperately clung to and tried to keep. The last thing anyone needed was another war.

It'd been less than two years since the Fourth Shinobi World War and every major village, including Konoha, received quite the hit. If another war broke out, it could completely collapse Konoha. Not only were they low on Shinobi, but also on resources and weapons. The only comfort they had was knowing that every other village fared the same losses.

Sighing, Sakura turned to face her teammate and broke the lengthy silence that had stretched between them for hours and hours on their way back home. "I'm going to meet up with Ino, but if you want, we can go out for dinner later."

Kakashi's eyebrows rose, and he widened his eyes. "Sakura-chan… are you asking me out on a _date?_ "

Sakura nearly tripped over her own feet and she whirled around to fully face her former sensei, jaw slack. "W-what? No! I was just…"

The woman trailed off as he began to laugh and realised he was just teasing her, something he'd been doing often lately. She stomped her foot, much like a petulant child, and crossed her arms. "Not funny, baka."

"Shh, don't let anyone hear you disrespecting your captain." He winked at her as his laughter died and he reached to pat her head. The only reason she didn't slap his hand away was that his features suddenly grew serious.

Sakura stared dumbly at him and waited for him to speak.

"Stop worrying so much. You're much more fun when you loosen up," Kakashi said, his fingers scratching lightly at her scalp.

A shiver ran down her spine that she successfully suppressed and then he retreated his hand, spun on his heel and walked away, his hand waving lazily in the air. "See you at dinner, Sakura-chan."

Sakura Haruno had never been so confused.

* * *

"Forehead!" Ino chirped when she saw Sakura waiting for her in front of her new office. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Her friend fidgeted awkwardly under her scrutiny and tilted her head towards her office as she muttered, "Not here."

Ino immediately found the situation highly suspicious. She hadn't seen Sakura fidget since the day she pleaded with Tsunade to take her on as her apprentice.

"Come on in." Ino invited the pink-haired kunoichi into her office, and they both sat on the comfortable red couch by the wall.

"Are you okay?" The blonde asked worriedly, as she watched her friend squirm uncomfortably in her seat, hands clutched together in her lap. "…You're not pregnant, are you?"

"Ino!" The rosette turned a shade of pink that matched her hair. "You know I'm a…"

At the eye roll the medic received from her best friend she shut her mouth. "I will never understand you Forehead. You're nearly twenty, what's stopping you?"

 _Ugh, why now…_ Sakura cried out in her head. "I'm not… I just don't… I haven't found the right person, _okay?_ "

"I just feel so bad for you," Ino drawled, resting her cheek on her upturned palm. "You're missing out on so much."

While Inner Sakura fought to escape and rip Ino a new one, Sakura plastered on a smile, even when her eyebrow twitched in annoyance. _Seriously Pig, I can satisfy myself, thank you very much._

"Anyway, what is it?" Ino leant back casually against the couch and crossed her legs. This caused the slits of her long purple skirt to part all the way up to her bandaged thighs.

Sakura took a shaky breath and clamped down on her nerves. _Here goes…_ "I want you to check my brain for any sign of… damage."

Ino's well-maintained eyebrows shot up in both surprise and worry. "Did you hit your head? Shouldn't Tsunade che—"

"I didn't hit my head Ino," Sakura assured, hurriedly, "I meant I want you to check if there's something… _wrong_ … with me."

Now, Ino looked considerably alarmed. "Forehead, what's going on? You're worrying me."

Sakura groaned and buried her face in her hands; there was really no way around this, was there? "I've just been having… weird dreams… about someone I know… I mean like, about their past and all and I just want to make sure I haven't gone crazy or anything."

Ino raised an incredulous eyebrow at Sakura. "About who?"

"…I don't want to talk about it."

Unfortunately, Ino had that look in her eyes that promised she'd find out no matter what. "I'm your best friend, why not?"

"Maybe later," Sakura acquiesced, hoping to satisfy the Yamanaka long enough to get through this check-up without incident.

Ino rolled her eyes and scooted closer to her friend, fingers reaching to press her skull. "Just relax."

Sakura took a deep breath and forced the tension to leave her shoulders, instead choosing to let her eyes study Ino's office.

It wasn't anything fancy, but it had an air of superiority to it that Sakura couldn't quite place. The desk was a sturdy mahogany brown and the chair behind it was finished with a dark wine-coloured leather. There weren't any plants around, which Sakura found unusual considering the office belonged to a Yamanaka. The only softening touch in the place was the fluffy scarlet carpet laid across the floor. But besides that everything else was metal lockers filled with god-knows-what and Ino's uniform hanging behind the large door.

What caught Sakura's attention, and briefly distracted her off the sensation of Ino's chakra invading her brain, was a little silver square packet poking out from between the red couch's cushions between her and Ino.

Sakura frowned. She didn't need to use those to know what they were; God knows she handed out enough of these in the hospital and to teenage boys and girls hoping they'd be smart enough to make use of them.

"Ino…" Sakura said slowly, not taking her eyes off the plastic packet. "Why is there a condom packet on the couch?"

The steady stream of chakra to her brain stopped abruptly and Sakura looked up to meet a pair of wide blue eyes.

"Uh… damn, sorry," Ino said, marginally embarrassed as she quickly grabbed the offending object and discarded it in the small trash bin under her desk.

Sakura blinked at her friend, slightly speechless. "You can't _seriously_ be doing that here!"

The blonde huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Why not?"

"Because!" Sakura threw her arms up in exasperation. "It's a work office… what if someone heard? What if someone _saw?_ "

Ino rolled her eyes, unimpressed. "Forehead we're ninja, we _don't_ get caught."

Unconvinced emerald met determined cerulean in a heated staring fight until Sakura huffed and looked away. "Who is it anyway?"

"I ain't telling you until I know who you're dreaming of." Ino winked and blew her a kiss, ignoring the way Sakura's eyebrow twitched violently.

"Fine!" Sakura cried. "Don't tell me."

"Fine!" Ino retorted, smugly.

"Am I going insane, then?" Sakura asked poking her head.

"Nah." Ino waved a dismissive hand in font of her face. "Not at all. You're okay. It seems to me you're having these dreams for a different reason."

"I don't get it." Sakura fell back against the couch. "Why am I having them?"

"I can't really help you unless I have more information, Forehead," Ino told her, looking sympathetic. "But maybe do some research? I've heard of old legends that described similar occurrences."

"I guess." The rosette shrugged helplessly and got up. "Well, that's all. I'll go now."

"You just got here." Ino pouted. "Pretty please stay a while longer."

Looking at the hopeful expression on her best friend's face, Sakura sighed, and without any real displeasure, she drawled, "Fine."

* * *

What Sakura planned to be a short hangout with Ino stretched out for over three hours and by then, Sakura was running late to her planned dinner with Kakashi.

Keeping an eye on her bedroom clock that read seven in the evening, she hurriedly changed into a loose red dress that ended just above her knee and had a lovely v-neck and loose half sleeves. She hadn't worn that particular dress in a while but she realised belatedly that she skipped out on laundry day and was lacking non-offensive smelling clothes. So, red dress she got from Ino for her seventeenth birthday it was.

It made Sakura realise she hadn't worn a dress in a while and she was pleased to rediscover how comfortable and freeing it felt to move around in the loose material. Perhaps she and Ino should go dress shopping soon. Especially since the summer festival was coming up in two weeks.

Her doorbell rang, interrupting her train of thought, and Sakura hurried to answer it. Just as expected, she found a tall silver-haired man standing there, jounin vest and forehead protector missing. "Wow, you're early."

Whenever they agreed to have dinner, they'd meet at her house at eight, but Kakashi —who refused to let go of his old habits— consistently managed to arrive just after eight-thirty. Today, he came at eight-fifteen.

"What can I say?" The man's eyes creased in a smile. "I got hungry."

Sakura giggled as she made a quick work of strapping her weapon pouch to her thigh and sealing her door shut.

"So… where do you want to eat?" she asked him. "I doubt you want Ichiraku, and we just had ramen earlier this week."

Kakashi looked pensive for the whole of one minute. "I know a western restaurant that serves delicious steak."

"Really? Where's that?" Sakura inquired curiously. She didn't know of any western restaurants in the area. She was aware of the existence of a few, but not in their location, so it was no surprise to her that Kakashi lead her into a whole new district, explaining it was closer to the outskirts of the city.

"Wouldn't it be more auspicious if it were in the heart of the city?" Sakura wondered as they arrived at their destination —a well-lit but rather quiet place with the name 'Aperu Besu'.

Kakashi chuckled. "It would but then again… I think what makes it appealing is the lack of noise around it. I believe it aims to target specific types of customers."

"What? You mean the aloof, I-read-smut-in-public-so-don't-disturb-me type?" she teased as they walked through the polished wooden doors.

Kakashi snorted and nodded at the waitress who greeted them, a shy looking brunette wearing a small white dress and a black apron.

Looking around, Sakura immediately fell in love with the place. It had a very calming atmosphere, the cream coloured walls and cherry floored carpet created a rather cosy feel, coupled with the spot lights hanging over every table made it look lively, but also relaxing.

They were lead to a table at the corner, per Kakashi's request, who invariably felt more comfortable resting against two walls. It reminded her in a subtle way that Kakashi was always cautious, and slightly paranoid. She wondered how he got to this stage where he felt the need to be constantly watching his back.

Sakura took her time going through the menu, reading about different kinds of foods and seasoned steaks they served before placing an order.

"How did you find this place?" Sakura asked once the waitress left to prepare their order.

The man sitting opposite of her shrugged. "I know all of Konoha, really. You're required to if you want to join ANBU."

"I gathered you quit ANBU." Sakura frowned. She didn't like the idea of Kakashi in ANBU, but only because she'd had a few dreams about it which proved that that place truly killed a part of him —or rather, he let a part of him die by that profession.

"Nobody _really_ quits ANBU, Sakura-chan," Kakashi informed with a deliberately light chuckle that didn't sit well with the medic. "You could always be called back when there's a shortage of shinobi, or if they believe only you're capable of a particular mission."

"I didn't know it was an in for life kind of thing," the rosette grumbled, rather unhappily.

Kakashi's ungloved fingers began to thrum rhythmically on the wooden table. "I wouldn't say it is… but ask anyone who's been in ANBU, it becomes ingrained in you in a way that it becomes… _difficult_ to revert back to regular routine."

Sakura pursed her lips to stop herself from retorting. ANBU damaged shinobi more than anyone ever knew. As a medic, she was privy to the mental repercussions it caused and the fact that it slowly killed even the best of ninja if they didn't take regular breaks.

And she knew for a fact that Kakashi Hatake was a part of that organisation for twelve long years. It made her feel a little sick and so she redirected the conversation before she could lose her appetite for food. "Right, uh… what did you do this afternoon?"

Kakashi chuckled at her obvious attempt in changing the conversation but indulged her. "Nothing too fancy, showered, napped, read."

"You sound like an old man," the rosette snorted and accepted her fizzy drink when the waitress laid it in front of her.

"I do _not,_ " he gasped, faking indignation.

Giggling, Sakura sipped on her drink, enjoying the feeling of the chilled fizzy liquid sliding down her throat. "You _do._ "

" _Everyone_ showers and sleeps, Sakura-chan."

She wondered at the tone of his voice if he was pouting beneath that mask, and didn't realise her eyes had trailed to fix on his clothed mouth until he bought his straw to it and drank through the black material.

Her eyes shot up to meet his, which were dancing with mischief and laughter at her. She felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment and she snapped, "You're gonna get it all sticky."

"Get _what_ sticky, Sakura-chan?" The way he said it made her pause. Were her ears tricking her or… She could've sworn his voice was dripping with innuendo!

Coupled with the amusement in his charcoal eyes, she must've guessed right. Sakura struggled against her instinct to blush and took another sip of her drink. "Your mask, Oji-chan."

His foot kicked her knee under the table, nearly causing her to spill her drink. Sakura glared at him. She was willing to bet an A-ranked mission's savings that he was smirking beneath that stupid mask.

The waitress came back with their food before Sakura could go ahead and return his kick with one of her own, but one aimed at a decidedly more sensitive place.

She pointedly ignored him as she took a bite of her steaming steak and chewed slowly, savouring the juicy texture and the overflowing taste of pepper sauce. She swallowed, eyes wide in wonder and hummed in pleasure, surprised it tasted this good. So good, in fact, she had to suck the excess sauce off her lips for the next three bites.

Feeling her forehead tingling from his stare, she looked up. She nearly jumped in her seat from the intensity of his gaze. He was watching her intently with his dark, dark eyes fixed resolutely on her moistened lips. Sakura stopped breathing altogether, feeling an unfamiliar tension surrounding them, one much similar to what she perceived in the hotel room when doing his check-up.

The medic felt a knot twist her gut as his hand rose slowly, oh-so-cautiously to her face, his eyes never leaving her mouth as his thumb carefully wiped off the corner of her lips, brushing lightly across her bottom one.

A white-hot _thrill_ shot through her body, and it was all she could do not to shudder at the impression of his thumb on her skin.

At the warm shaky breath that escaped her and fanned his fingers, Kakashi quickly retreated his hand, his eyes looking away from her. "There was some uh… sauce, on your —on your mouth,"

Sakura let out a nervous chuckle, at a loss with the sudden thick atmosphere and the loud pounding of her heart. "Ah… t-thank you."

He waved her off and started cutting his steak rather viciously.

Sakura looked down at her meal, it was still steaming and she was sure her face was flaming red and the tight sensation in her gut didn't loosen, if anything, it grew tighter the more she recalled how magnetising his eyes were. Her damned lips were tingling like a live-wire.

She cursed softly, what was happening and _what the hell wa_ s this feeling?

* * *

 **Aloha awesome readers! There you have it, chapter 4! It's the longest chapter thus far, of 5,460 words (yes, I'm proud ok) and as you can see this story is progressing kind of differently from the original version but it will hold many similarities you'll notice in future chapters. I honestly like this one much better.**

 **I'm trying to slowly build up the tension between Kakashi and Sakura, I hope it's working! Please review and let me know what you think.**

 **Oh, and, to the guest accounts that ask questions, I'm sorry I can't respond unless you use your account but I shall be answering your questions here:**

 **Guest: _"please tell me that this Kakashi is gonna be like the other Kakashi, I mean, not like a playboy because the past scenes were so pure! (the first version)"_**

 **Answer: Don't worry, Kakashi will not be a playboy or any of that! He'll be similar to the original version but with a few differences here and there. Some scenes will change, and some will remain the same.**

 **Guest: _"The visions of the past sounds like another_** _**kakasaku fic I've read. I'm assuming this story will be different though? Nevermind I just realized that you deleted all of your other chapters. Was the previous version completed?"**_

 **Answer: Yeah it's the same fic, just rewritten! No, the previous version was not completed.**

 **Anyways, thanks for the lovely birthday wishes and awesome reviews, I try to reply to every single one of you. Sadly, doesn't let me reply to guests so I'll thank you for your support here. I read it, I love it and it makes me very happy. Thanks to anyone who takes the time to leave a review, no matter how small. It motivates me beyond anything.**

 **If you have any questions you want immediate answers to, head to my tumblr ( _bouncyirwin_ ) and ask me there, I'm always active. **

**Beta'd by the lovely Denilmo**

 **Well, until next time! -Rams**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Wash Away The Pain**

Sakura Haruno felt somewhat uneasy standing in the Hokage's sparse office next to her former sensei. The tension between her and Kakashi was almost palpable, but she failed to comprehend its cause.

Their dinner yesterday had been a quiet affair —save for the light chatter here and there to keep the atmosphere from becoming incredibly tense, or worse, awkward. Thankfully, their food was so delightful it made it difficult for anything to distract them from enjoying it. After all but wiping their plates clean, Sakura escorted him home because his house was closer and then she went back to her house, and that was the end of her eventful day.

Okay, maybe not.

After going back home and getting in her queen-sized bed, she couldn't, for the life of her, fall asleep. She was too busy thinking back to that one moment during their dinner when Kakashi had reached over across the table and wiped the corner of her mouth with his thumb.

It wasn't that big of a deal, really, they were relatively close friends. She wasn't particularly embarrassed by what happened, but there was no other word to explain the sensation that twisted her gut for the remainder of their dinner.

Or there was, but she refused to acknowledge it.

Naruto had done similar things a few times before (even though it always ended up with him getting smacked) and they forgot about it the next minute. Somehow, with Kakashi, it felt more ... intimate, and that was why the rosette felt slightly uncomfortable. That, and because Tsunade was staring at the both of them like she knew exactly what was going through her head.

"I'm sending you on an undercover mission." The Hokage finally spoke, and her eyes felt scalding on Sakura's skin. "We've gathered valuable intel of a multimillionaire named Kamaru Toishi who may or may not be involved in the development of the drug you mentioned in your mission report from last week."

Sakura's breath hitched in her throat, and her heart nearly skipped a beat. "R-really?"

Tsunade nodded. "Genma and Ino were on a mission of their own, but one of the men they captured was privy to an illegal deal that went down between this Toishi character and another. We only know what Ino managed to gather, but it seems like Toishi was financially contributing to the development of a new drug."

"How do we know it's the same drug?"

Sakura started at the sound of his voice, much to her mortification, and fought desperately to keep from flushing under Tsunade's sharp, all-knowing gaze. And yet, the blonde's eyes seemed to pierce right through her to scrutinise her bare soul. Sakura wasn't sure what her mentor saw there, or _what_ was there in the first place, all she knew was it wouldn't do to be distracted.

"We don't," Tsunade replied, the corner of her mouth tilting down, unhappily, "but Toishi was recently seen in the Land of Stars."

Both shinobi froze. That was too big of a coincidence to pass.

"Right now, Toishi is on a trip to Naka's island with his new wife. I want you two to gather more intel," Tsunade explained in an authoritative voice and then her tone took on a dangerous tilt. "And Sakura, I trust you'll give them hell once we have enough dirt on them."

Sakura gave a jerky nod. "Yes, shishou."

* * *

Sakura stood in front of her closet unsure of how to proceed. She didn't own a piece of clothing that was remotely appropriate for a vacation —let alone a honeymoon. Tsunade said she'd provide them with an outfit for when they arrived there, but the rest was on her.

Kakashi dropped her home ten minutes ago, and they had reached an agreement that they'd depart in one hour, but Sakura was no longer so sure that was enough time to compile outfits to last her up to two weeks.

She noted that the only appropriate piece of clothing she possessed was the dress she wore to Hinata's eighteenth; a half-sleeve, skin-tight navy blue garment that reached just above her knee.

Sakura groaned. _Ten more outfits to go…_

* * *

The young medic ended up raiding Ino's closet. The blonde wasn't at home, but Sakura suspected that had to do with her latest mission that Tsunade mentioned and the men they captured.

Sakura, unfortunately, couldn't borrow most of Ino's shirts for the blonde was more blessed in the chest department than she, but that didn't desist her from snatching a few skirts and the rare dresses that fit.

It was a rushed task of finding personal favourites she'd previously borrowed and trying things on lightning fast, glancing in the mirror and either discarding or packing the item.

Thirty minutes later, Sakura was writing her friend a note explaining the mess and that she'd have her belongings back in a week or two even if her life depended on it. _Sorry!_

Once the rosette was sure she had everything she required, she made a beeline to the gates, hoping Kakashi didn't decide to forgo his usual habits today out of all days. It would reflect poorly on her if she managed to arrive at her set destination _after_ her team captain.

* * *

The long yet moderately more comfortable silence that settled over them made her heart wrench even if she was partly contributing to it. Kakashi wasn't one to initiate conversation and expecting him to now was just unrealistic. He was walking a few steps ahead, intent on giving her the space she seemed to need. Sakura wasn't sure if she appreciated that or resented it.

The plan was for them to hike to the marine dock in the Land of Flowers and take a boat to Naka's island from there for the sole purpose of avoiding being traced back to Konoha if all went to hell and they were discovered.

The sun was slowly setting overhead and bit by bit; a mute chill began to settle over the forest, rousing goosebumps on the exposed skin of her legs. Soon, the sky darkened, and the shadows elongated, merging their surroundings with the night and concealing them from any prying eyes.

"We'll stop here." Kakashi's voice was soft, as quiet as the night, and to her surprise it made her shoulders relax.

They set their camp in the little clearing and Kakashi started a small fire using a fire jutsu when she looked away.

Sakura rolled her eyes at him. She'd known him for over seven years and she'd yet to see his face. It was disappointing, and it made her a little sad, but like everything revolving around this man, she knew he had a good reason behind it.

Kakashi's eyes creased unapologetically and just like that, whatever remained from yesterday's built-up tension dissolved like it was never there in the first place.

They sat by the fire for warmth and ate the canned food Sakura had packed in a sealing scroll prior to their depart before retreating to their sleeping bags.

"Goodnight," she wished his sleeping figure, eyes fixed on the stars peeking from behind the trees overhead.

"Goodnight, Sakura-chan."

* * *

It was pitch dark in the thick forest, with the occasional blur of greys and blues as lightning struck overhead.

Sakura's shallow, rapid breathing filled the night, echoing loudly in her ears. She couldn't see, and the sound of the heavy rain drowned out everything else including the squelching sound her feet made as they sank ankle-deep in the muddy ground.

Her heart was thumping wildly in her chest —slamming briskly against her ribcage as she struggled to make sense of her surroundings. The air was freezing cold, and it made her teeth grind and chatter together. Her senses soaked it all up, and her hold on reality began to falter as the illusion threatened to take over her mind.

Grasping onto rough bark, she ploughed forward, her mind numb and her fingers ice. Someone was cursing from within the night —it was faint, but she heard it inside her head, loud and clear.

Gradually, she became aware of the nearby presence of another person. It was a man, and he was holding onto someone still, murmuring softly to them.

Lightning struck again, and it made her jump. It cast its eerie glow on the sleeping forest, and for mere seconds she thought she saw a flash of silver.

"Hello?"

Her call fell upon deaf ears, but suddenly there was a soft glow within the darkness, chasing away shadows and forming a figure.

Sakura's breath hitched in her throat as her frantic eyes pieced together the hunched figure of Kakashi holding onto a corpse. There was a distinguished darkness surrounding his light and bit by bit it began to close in on him, slowly diminishing the light that illuminated his presence.

She watched the receding light with growing horror. Something told her that this Kakashi would disappear with it.

And then she'd be left all alone in this endless darkness.

"Kakashi?" she tried to say, but her words had no sound, and her throat was closing in and tightening up at the realisation.

The silver-haired man on the ground was bleeding heavily from a gash in his head, the remnants of his broken ANBU mask lying pitifully on the ground, covered with mud and blood. He was still murmuring, and it was incoherent at best. He sounded as broken as he looked but he was smiling, and Sakura's stomach was threatening to spill its contents all over this sickeningly realistic world she was stuck in.

"…so s'rry…" he slurred, the body of his partner falling from his numb arms as he sank to the ground and Sakura noticed the blood dripping from his mask, where his mouth was located. "…Obito…"

The kunoichi swallowed thickly against the rising bile in her throat and attempted to move. To her terror, she found her bones to be laced with steel and impossible to carry. They grounded her —held her prisoner— mere steps away from the dying man she held close to her heart.

Panic began to settle in her gut like a heavy block of cement, and the blood in her veins felt like ice. Kakashi was dying, and she was stuck watching it.

Feelings that didn't belong to her surged through her shell-shocked brain; relief, longing, sorrow, and most revoltingly: excitement.

She didn't need a guide to know who those feelings belonged to and she realised with a horrible jolt that Kakashi _wanted_ to die as memories that weren't her own flashed through her mind's eye.

All those years in ANBU, where this young man sank deeper and deeper into darkness, had all but one purpose: his demise.

His name fell as a silent scream from her parted lips as the man on the ground coughed violently into his hand, spraying blood everywhere to join the pool of crimson forming beneath him.

The light around him shook and wavered, becoming a thin outline that traced the surroundings of his figure and Sakura knew it was almost over. Especially when the feeling of elation that didn't belong to her overflowed in her chest. Kakashi was at death's door, literally and figuratively.

This _had_ to be a dream. Kakashi couldn't die. He wasn't supposed to. She tried, again and again, to call for him, to approach him, but it was all in vain.

Sakura's body began to collectively convulse with her expanding sense of panic and dread as the reality of the scene ahead of her began to truly sink in, and she watched Kakashi's skin grow sickly white from blood loss.

His whispered goodbye was her doing.

* * *

"KAKASHI!"

Oh, how _good_ it felt to hear her voice again; to feel the vocal chords in her throat reverberate when his name tore through as a sob to convey the uncontainable urgency that threatened to choke her as darkness filled her vision and clouded her surroundings.

Sakura jolted up in her sleeping bag like she'd been struck by the same lightning that was the cackling life force in the very same dying man she couldn't save. The very same man who now sat crouched by her side, kunai in hand, alert and looking very unsettlingly _panicked_.

Her arms shot out and wrapped around him before he could as much as open his mouth and demand to know where the threat lie.

Sakura squeezed him tightly, her breath rushing out of her in the form of a broken sob. It was just a dream. A nightmare. Her worst one thus far.

It didn't matter that Kakashi's whole body went rigid in her hold, concern rolling off of him in waves. What mattered was that he was _alive_ and _in one piece,_ his skin its natural healthy colour lacking bruises and life-threatening wounds.

"S-sakura?" he stammered, voice thick with an emotion she couldn't quite place in her frenzied state.

He brought his palms to her shoulders and attempted to gently push her off to check her for any injuries, but Sakura refused to budge; instead, her hands slid to his chest and grasped the cotton material of his dark shirt firmly in her hold, yanking him even closer to her. "D-don't go," she whimpered pathetically into his neck. "P-please."

He smelled _wonderful_. It wasn't so much the pleasantness of the smell but rather its familiar warmth. The earthy scent with the subtle undertones of coffee beans and aftershave filled her being and surrounded Sakura oh-so-completely as he reciprocated her hug and wrapped strong, _safe_ arms around her waist, tugging her closely and nestling her against his chest, right over the strong rhythmic thudding of his heart.

* * *

Sakura Haruno wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. She couldn't even muster up the courage to look at Kakashi without wanting to die from mortification.

She should've known it was a bad idea to allow herself to sleep in close proximity to him when she knew she'd be dreaming horrific things from his past. Kakashi had sounded so… so _scared,_ when he said her name like he might be passing out the next minute. Had she really frightened him that much?

Probably. Not many things were capable of making her break the way she had that morning. Seeing Kakashi dying somewhere in a black void just about shattered her.

If this was truly a memory, then Kakashi really was on a forest's ground once upon a time, coughing up blood and knocking on death's door. The thought made her sick to her stomach, and she had to make a conscious effort to keep from losing her recently-consumed breakfast.

How could she have been so oblivious to his internal struggles? All her life she saw Kakashi as the perfect representation of a shinobi —a strong, unbreakable man who fought on and pushed through no matter how risky and gruesome his mission became.

And it wasn't as if discovering this more vulnerable —more _human_ — side of him changed her admiration of him in anyway but rather, it made her hate herself. Kakashi had been _suicidal_ at one stage in his teenage years, and here he was, still going, still pushing through.

How did her fourteen-year-old self ever think she understood real struggle or real pain? She had been too busy wallowing in self-pity, missing her teammates, feeling useless and pining after a boy who never gave her a second look.

And Kakashi… Kakashi was an ANBU captain, a warrior, an orphan, a lone soul. His entire team was _dead._ It was easy to state plain facts and recite information but when she really allowed herself to think about it, how in God's name did Kakashi manage to survive _that_? If she even lost _one_ person from her team, she knew without an ounce of doubt it would tear her to shreds.

Sakura couldn't begin to imagine her world without Naruto's sunny smiles and comforting presence; or Sai's rude yet always funny remarks; or Sasuke's dumb rare smiles that still gave her butterflies, but only because she was happy when he was happy; it definitely wouldn't be the same without Yamato around to keep everyone in check and back her up when the boys became too much of a handful. And Kakashi… the whole of Konoha wouldn't be the same without Kakashi.

The mere thought of a world where they no longer existed was enough to make her eyes pool with tears, and it took her all not to let them go.

How did the man walking in stoic silence alongside her ever live through that unbearable agony?

Not for the first time, Sakura wished she had been less selfish. Maybe then she would've noticed that Kakashi wasn't okay, that he'd never be okay. Because how could one get over so much loss?

Sakura's admiration of him hit new heights, if possible.

Yes, he did seek death instead of waiting for it to come to him, but she wasn't sure she could blame him. Because if their positions were reversed… she was certain she would've never made it out of that dark, dark hole.

Sakura felt her breakfast coming up once again but swallowed against it, refusing to let Kakashi see her so vulnerable once again, especially now that she knew of some of the things he'd been through.

"I get nightmares too." He spoke so softly it was like he was breathing the words.

Sakura froze at the sound of his voice, her heart jumping to lodge in her throat. He didn't seem fazed with her reaction, and she was quick to resume her walking, her face heating up for the hundredth time that afternoon.

"Some are atrocious, and some I've gotten used too." He carried on, and Sakura dared glance at his face as she matched their pace for the first time that day, choosing to walk beside him. He was, after all, disclosing something personal. A part of her immensely warmed up at that.

His eyes were fixed on the clouds overhead, and his hands were shoved in his pockets. Looking at him seemingly so lost in his thoughts made her stomach somersault; why was it that everything about him felt so intimate lately? It was as if she was violating some law by witnessing this side of him.

"I'm sorry," she said looking away, unsure of how to respond, but also knowing that it was important to give any reaction. The corner of his eyes creased within her peripheral vision.

He waved his hand in a careless gesture. "I'm just trying to say… ninja get nightmares, it comes in the job description. But… they get better… eventually."

Sakura couldn't help but smile at him. She already knew all this but having him talk to her about it made her feel somewhat special. He was obviously making an effort to deliver this little speech.

"I know," she replied, just as softly, and turned to look ahead at the narrowing dirt road, oblivious to his eyes on her. And as an afterthought, she added, "thanks."

* * *

They stopped in a small clothing shop in the Land of Flowers at around six in the evening, just as the sun began to set on the horizon.

Thankfully, the store was nearly empty, save for the young woman manning the counter and the elderly lady sitting beside her, a steaming cup of tea in hand. They didn't seem to notice the pair of ninja sneaking into the single dressing room in the outlet.

Kakashi wordlessly handed his partner a change of clothes that was provided to them by Tsunade and kicked his well-worn sandals off.

"Why did she give me a skirt!" Sakura hissed under her breath, holding the silky cream-coloured fabric up for him to see. "Do you know how impractical these are?"

The silver-haired man snorted quietly at her misfortune and shrugged as he kicked his jounin pants off. Sakura paused, her eyes fixing on the snug orange boxer shorts he wore. Her mouth dropped open.

"Ehm." Her partner arched an incredulous eyebrow and motioned to his half-naked figure. "Some privacy please?"

"You own _orange_ Icha Icha themed underwear." She deadpanned in a voice just above a whisper. She could barely believe her eyes; how dorky was this ex-sensei of hers?

Kakashi diverted his gaze and… was that a blush creeping over his mask? Sakura picked her jaw off the floor and pressed her palm to her mouth to block the giggles bubbling in her throat.

"What's wrong with them?" Kakashi said, affronted.

"Oh, nothing." Sakura snorted into her hand, her shoulders trembling with the strain of holding back her laughter. "Don't worry; they're cute."

Kakashi huffed and pulled out a pair of dark pants similar to his jounin ones out of his backpack. "Just change so we can get going."

Sakura grinned at the sore expression on his face. "Hai, hai, captain."

* * *

"Alright, here we are." Kakashi halted her by placing a hand on her shoulder and pulling her to a stop. She turned to face him, inquiringly. "We'll go by Mr and Mrs Han. Are you ready?"

Sakura nodded with growing trepidation "yeah…"

"Alright then, after you, Mrs Han." He extended his arm ahead of her, his eyes creasing and his form bowing a little at the waist.

Sakura baulked. "R-right," she muttered absently, confused to why her stomach was twisting itself into a knot.

Kakashi had to be grinning under the mask if the way it stretched around his face was anything to go by. It was clear that he enjoyed teasing her.

Sighing, she sent him a withering glare, turned on her heel and began to march towards the small ship where many young couples stood in line ready to go on board.

Deft fingers caught her wrist and yanked her back, causing her cream-coloured skirt to flutter and float around her. She slammed into something solid and warm. "What are you—"

Her breath caught in her throat as her face stopped inches away from his, and then she was trapped in his bottomless eyes, at such a close distance that she could see the rims of his pupils. "Married couple Sakura. _Honeymoon._ Get in the act."

The breathiness of his tone, the seriousness in his eyes and the feeling of his breath on her chin made the hairs on her back stand straight. She gulped and resisted a shiver, her brain scrambling frantically for a response when it was too busy marvelling at the feel of his firm pectorals against her breasts. "S-sorry,"

His eyes creased, and _gods,_ the quick transition from deadly-serious to smiley alone screamed dangerous. It reminded her that this was a man feared across all shinobi lands, whose gentle hold on her had been the lethal hold on many of his enemies' necks.

To her relief he stepped away and around her, putting a comfortable distance between them and allowing her some space to breathe and calm down her erratic heartbeat. "Let's go."

But this time, he held her hand in his gloveless one.

Sakura nearly shuddered at the electricity that shot up her arm as his cool fingers wrapped firmly around her own and began to drag her towards the ship. She stumbled after him, widened eyes fixed on their joined hands and heart rate erratic once again.

If Sakura were to be honest, she always thought Kakashi was a little too tense (if you ignored his slouched stance). He didn't seem to her like the kind of man to hold hands with anyone, mission or not. But one thing she did imagine correctly was the safety that radiated off being close to him.

The sturdy hold he had on her was doing absurd things to her body, and his touch slowly grew scalding to her skin, sending periodic waves of tingling heat up her arm. Sakura was sure her cheeks matched her hair colour.

"Um..." She coughed awkwardly when they boarded the ship, noticing the curious looks they were receiving, especially Kakashi with his ridiculous mask he refused to abandon. "Kakashi… your—"

"What's with the mask?" An old lady with chestnut weaved with silver coloured hair asked her husband, brown eyes glancing curiously at Kakashi. Sakura mentally cursed her teammate; he just had to go ahead and attract unnecessary attention!

"Ah…" Kakashi turned to face the couple, hand scratching awkwardly at the back of his head. "You see, I was mauled by an animal…"

The couple stared in horror. "Oh!" and then turned worried eyes to Sakura, as if awaiting her reaction.

Kakashi let go of her hand, and his arm snaked around her waist and nudged their hips together. "She still thinks I'm handsome, right darling?"

 _How in God's name did I get dragged into this?_ "Y-yes, of course —of course, you're handsome, honey."

That was all it took for the elderly couple to melt. They fawned over them and young love for the rest of the trip to the island, droning on and on about their early marriage days.

Sakura inwardly sighed. This mission just got that much more troublesome. The nosy couple exiting the ship alongside them seemed to be bent on intruding on every aspect of their 'sweet honeymoon' to reminisce the 'good old days'. _Great._

* * *

 **Hey there, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you did, please review and let me know, it really motivates me, and we all know motivation = faster updates.**

 **This chapter was a little fast paced, but I didn't want to linger on unimportant details and drag everything out.**

 **Beta's by my awesome Denilmo.**

 **Until next time -Rams**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Falling Deeper**

The quiet sound of metal sliding and clicking as the door unlocked echoed in the empty and darkened apartment, bouncing off walls and gaining in volume. The two shinobi on the threshold simultaneously paused in their steps; someone had been in there not too long ago, and they hadn't bothered to conceal their presence. This place reeked of them.

"A kunoichi," the brown haired man whispered, a kunai appearing in his hand seemingly out of thin air.

The blonde standing next to him squinted in the dark and took a tentative step in as if sensing the air. "It doesn't feel malicious to me. Perhaps one of the girls dropped by in my absence."

Her partner did not relax his stance at her reassuring words, but he didn't stop her from switching the lights on and wandering in. She disappeared into her bedroom and he made his way into the small kitchen, eyes and ears sharp for any sign that things were out of place.

"Genma!" Abrupt laughter came from his companion, and he hurried to where she was to find her sitting at the edge of her bed clutching a note in her nimble fingers. The senbon wielder joined her on the white coloured covers and leant over her shoulder, eyes scanning the note.

 _Dear Ino,_

 _No, there was no ninja thief in here, and if there was, they should probably resign._

 _I'm on an undercover mission with Kakashi (I'll share the details when I get back), and I needed 'honeymoon' suitable clothes (yes, I'm baiting you). I'll be back in a week or two, and then we'll go shopping because if you can't already tell, my closet is bare (and here, I'm appealing to your shopaholic side). **Sorry!** Please take care._

 _Love,_

 _Sakura._

His eyebrows shot high on his forehead, and the corner of his mouth quirked around the senbon sticking from between his teeth. "Did I read that right?"

"Oh, yes you did," Ino chortled, and there was just a hint of evil in her tone that never sat well with the brown-haired man. "This is gonna be so good; I can't wait till she gets back. That Forehead, she knows how to get my blood pumping."

Genma stopped trying to resist the smile tugging at his lips and sighed, but without any real displeasure. Her presence next to him was warm, but the room was a bit too chilly for his tastes, so his brilliant mind came up with an equally brilliant solution. "Tea?"

"Yes, please."

* * *

Sakura Han had only been gone for less than ten minutes, but somehow she managed to return to the sight of her silver-haired 'husband' possessively clutching two pillows and staring determinedly at the door from which she walked in. "I'm taking your pillow."

Twin pink eyebrows rose. "But it's _my_ pillow."

"It _was_ your pillow," he disagreed, looking absolutely hilarious clutching onto the twin pillows as if they were overstuffed teddy bears. "Now you'll have to get another one."

"You're just too lazy to call room service aren't you?" Sakura concluded dryly and rolled her eyes as she sauntered towards the landline phone by her bedside.

Kakashi had the audacity to look sheepish. "Maybe."

The rosette sighed out loud. Was Kakashi going to play the lazy husband role? Because that was going to be a pain. Although he made a memorable sight sitting on the king side bed hugging the pillows to his chest. Dare she say he looked adorable, but she decided that line of thought was better kept to herself for now.

The suite they were checked into was massive in magnitude. The bathroom by itself was the size of Sakura's home kitchen. The walls were made out of expensive golden and white coloured marble, and there were at least three different lotion bottles on the sink with various kinds of bath bombs. The bedroom was beautiful too; Sakura had to admit. The beige-coloured headboard was made out of velvet, and the matching carpet on the floor was so soft her feet sank in a few millimetres when she walked. Oh, and she especially loved the red roses in the vase on the coffee table and the nice contrast between it and the nude coloured room.

Kakashi didn't seem enthralled with anything except the jet spa in the bathroom and the food menu. Typical.

After asking for two more pillows, she stuck her tongue out at her companion and waltzed to the balcony to check their view. Sakura nearly squealed —they got beach view, and the sight was breathtaking. "Kakashi, you gotta see this!"

Some shuffling followed accompanied by a tired sigh before he appeared by her side, hand mussing his already messy hair. "You know we're on a mission, right?"

"No harm enjoying opportunities." Sakura shrugged good-naturedly and folded her arms over the black metal rail of the balcony. "When am I ever going to come here again?"

"Maybe when you get married? It is an excellent honeymoon spot if I say so myself," Kakashi suggested with an eye crease, his gaze sweeping over the place as if to see if his statement needed reassessing.

Sakura wasn't sure why his reply suddenly pummelled her good mood to the ground below them. "Which probably means never," she answered with more sourness than she intended and huffed, leaning well over the railing to look at the bustling restaurant below. She did that mostly to avoid looking him in the eyes, knowing he probably caught onto the hint of bitterness in her tone; she honestly hadn't planned on showing him how much this particular topic unsettled her.

Kakashi frowned and leant to rest his hip against the rail facing her, crossed his arms and peered over at her face. Confusion with a hint of curiosity showed in his features. "Why not? Do you not think you'll get married?"

A mocking laugh was his answer. "Not many would like to be with a woman physically stronger than them. Men don't really find that appealing."

A beat of silence passed, and then throaty laughter followed. Sakura's head whipped in Kakashi's direction to find his face buried in his hands. She frowned, _why is he laughing at me? Does he think this is funny?_ She felt her face flush in both indignation and embarrassment and was about to snap at him to shut up, but he spoke up first.

"Gods, Sakura," he snorted before his laughter died down and his face morphed into a more serious look. "You need to find yourself better male company. That's absolutely pathetic. If your being a capable, strong kunoichi threatens their masculinity then they're a bunch of losers, and you're better off without them."

Her face flushed against her will and it wasn't because she was flustered this time. She looked away quickly, her heart fluttering irregularly in her chest. "You don't agree with them?" she asked hesitantly, and she wasn't sure why she did so in the first place.

"Of course not." Another snort and she dared peek at him out of the corner of her eye. His charcoal eyes held a streak of mischief that caused butterflies to erupt in her tummy, and for reasons she failed to comprehend, his next words made her heart skip a beat. "What fun is a demure, obedient woman? I like to think that the fiercer the woman is, the more exciting the marriage is… but then that's just me."

She took a shaky breath. Sakura had dreamed of a man saying these words to her for years but never had she imagined Kakashi to be that man. His beliefs were more or less a mystery to her. And now… oh, the gods above must be having a good laugh. Her aloof, dependable, dorky, ex-sensei was currently the closest man to her dream guy that she personally knew.

It should unsettle her, she knew, but nothing of that sort made itself known in her mind. Instead, a certain… warmth blossomed in her heart for the man standing next to her. Kakashi really was a sweet man, he was charming in his way, and not many noticed it. None seemed to look further than the cool mask/tragic background story to judge him with. It did, however, mystify her that she was maybe, just a little bit, grateful for that fact.

* * *

Their afternoon and evening were spent searching for Toishi and his wife. Eventually, they found a man fitting the multimillionaire's description by the bar on the beach. Kamaru Toishi had dark hair, slicked back by what had to be multiple expensive hair products for it was perfectly combed and flat against his head without a strand out of place. He was a lean man with bulgy biceps and accusing forest green eyes.

Next to him sat a beautiful blonde woman clad in a little black bikini, her hair tied at the nape of her neck. Her cerulean eyes bore a striking resemblance to Naruto's, and Kakashi was sure if both blondes stood by one another, people would mistake them for siblings, or at least cousins. The woman, however, was quite obviously a foreigner for when she spoke to her husband, her words held a strange accent that let slip she wasn't from the local area.

Having found a couple that resembled the detailed report provided to them, and having seen the expensive wrist watch the man wore, the silver-haired shinobi was compelled into believing these were his targets and so he led his companion to a nearby seat, just a few stools away from the engrossed pair.

Sakura's eyebrow twitched imperceptibly in question, and he gave little nod; _yes, these are the people we're here for._

Kakashi was quick to order them drinks as not to seem suspicious and turned in his seat to face Sakura, having strategically positioned her between him and the couple so that he could observe their target without giving himself away.

"I told you, I'm not resigning," the woman said in her strange accent, and her voice held a tone of despair. "I love what I do."

"How will you be able to look after our son if you're working in that goddamned place, Akiko?" Toishi's voice was deep and hoarse and probably intimidating to mere civilians.

"Our _child_ will get all the attention it deserves just fine. I only work late hours, and I expect you to do you part of the caring, too," Akiko said firmly and turned to face away from her husband.

Kakashi quickly locked eyes with Sakura and leant closer, just enough so he could comfortably reach for a strand of her rose coloured hair and twirl it around his index. His companion gave him a curious look but otherwise remained silent as he began to murmur to her in what an outsider would observe as an intimate conversation between lovers. "So our target is a prick."

Sakura giggled quietly, and he smiled at how she was slowly adapting to her role and falling in disguise, blushing prettily and giggling as he sneaked pieces of observations to her.

"Oh, such lovely hair!" Their target's wife suddenly perked up, getting both Kakashi's and Sakura's attention. The woman was quite obviously referring to his partner's pink-coloured strands.

Kakashi let go of Sakura's hair as the rosette turned to face Akiko and his eyes creased in a smile. "Indeed, my wife has beautiful hair."

Sakura's cheeks flushed an endearing pink, but she laughed easily and nudged his side in an overly familiar gesture. "Oh, shush it. You only think so because you have _white_ hair."

 _Oh no she didn't._ "Silver hair darling, my hair is _silver._ "

The kunoichi smirked and turned to face away from him, taking a sip of her Martini. "Whatever you say, sweetheart."

This tipped him that the pink-haired woman was enjoying herself. He let out a pained sigh with obviously faked displeasure. "I try to compliment you, and this is how I'm repaid." Her retort is a not-so-discreet kick to his shins.

Akiko giggled and then levelled him with a politely curious look. "What's the mask for?"

Kakashi was all too happy to provide her with the same cover story he told the elderly couple on his way to this island, going into gritty details of how a wild bear attacked him and how despite his surviving, his face sustained permanent ugly wounds. At the end of his little rehearsed story, he had the attention of his target as well.

"What an unfortunate accident," the man muttered into his drink, eyes studying Kakashi curiously. "Perhaps consider plastic surgery."

"We're still looking into our options," Sakura answered for him, and her eyes were dancing with concealed amusement. "Ever since the accident, my husband has developed a fear of pointy objects."

Oh yes, his companion was _definitely_ enjoying herself. The couple next to them looked sympathetic, but Kakashi just waved his hand dismissively. "It's been years, I've gotten used to it—"

"Oh dear, look! It's the lovely young couple from the ship!" Kakashi was rudely cut off by the delighted cry of an overly-enthusiastic (why escaped him) senior woman.

All four turned to face the greying couple who were making their way towards them, the woman dragging her husband by the wrist to where Kakashi and Sakura sat.

It mystified Kakashi that they were referred to as a young couple; while Sakura definitely looked youthful, he did not. Nevertheless, he waved politely at their approaching company, secretly annoyed that precious time interrogating their target was being lost by playing fake-couple.

The woman was eyeing his arm around Sakura's waist and beaming. "Hello to you two again."

"Hello," Sakura replied politely, but there was a slight tenseness to her posture that clued Kakashi she was uncomfortable. He was inclined to tune out the rest of their conversation; he really couldn't fake being interested in sunscreen brands and how important it was to take care of one's skin.

"Oh, sure you can join!" Kakashi tuned back in at Sakura's polite reply, smiling and nodding as if he had the faintest idea what the conversation was about. The couple departed afterwards, and Kakashi gave Sakura a questioning look.

His teammate rolled her eyes at his ignorance and muttered an explanation, "They're joining us for dinner tonight."

"We're having dinner tonight?" She smacked him, and he ignored the giggles coming from Akiko.

"Yes and you'd do well to pay attention next time," she huffed and turned to face Akiko with an eye roll, grumbling " _Men._ " as if that explained everything.

"Tell me about it, sweetheart," the woman intoned, shooting her husband a dirty glare for which he ignored. "Let's go for a swim, what do you say?"

And then they were gone, leaving Kakashi and Toishi with two very unfinished drinks and a lot of room to talk. _Perfect._

Kakashi scooted closer to Toishi and formally introduced himself. "I'm Kakashi Han, by the way, I didn't catch your name?" He began mentally plotting the list of things he could ask to get a bit more friendly with the man and hoping Sakura was putting forth the same effort with Akiko.

* * *

Kakashi wasn't quite sure what was worse, knowing that their target was an expert at downplaying his importance and withholding selective information or dinner in khaki shorts with people he barely knew. He wasn't even going to pretend he remembered the last time he saw his legs that wasn't when in the shower.

"Why did you agree?" he grumbled, irritated in his own skin and the fact that Sakura was taking too long in the bathroom when his bladder was screaming at him for attention.

"Because—" Her exasperated tone had echoed through the cherrywood door before it slammed open to reveal her in a pink flowery dress and ballerina flats glaring pointedly at him, "—someone decided it was a good idea for me to deal with nosy madam Katsuki and her whipped husband."

Kakashi bit back a sarcastic retort —pissing Sakura off was, more often than not, a death wish and contrary to popular belief he actually didn't fancy dying— especially by her hand. The medic had her wicked and terrifying methods of drawn out torturous deaths he didn't fancy getting intimate with.

Instead, he took a calming breath, stepped around her and slammed the door shut to take care of his business. He really should've foreseen the undertones of an upcoming disaster in retaliation to his actions. He _had_ just sort of slammed the door in her face.

"Kakashi!" she growled, kicking the _unlocked_ door open so hard it rattled at the hinges, and he nearly pissed himself in fright as she stormed in and _oh, shit,_ he had his fucking balls out. "Don't you— oh!"

Kakashi squeezed his eyes shut and took in another deep breath. How does one react when they're disturbed while urine is shooting out of their body? "Yes, Sakura, _oh_."

He didn't need to look at her to know her face was glowing like a bulb as she stammered her apology, " _Oh, shit, I, crap —sorry!"_ before she raced out of the bathroom, shutting the door with equal vehemence to that of her entry _._

Kakashi sighed as he went about finishing his business. The last time someone (Genma) walked into the bathroom after him, unannounced, they had laughed so hard they'd cried. Yes, the brown-haired man had startled Kakashi enough to make him miss the toilet bowl entirely and then proceeded to dissolve into tears while shrieking _"you should've seen your face!"_

It was partly the Copy Ninja's fault; he never bothered locking the door, just assuming people would know better than to come marching right in. Apparently not.

Flushing the toilet and knowing he just announced to Sakura his arrival, he expected she'd find a way to make this his fault (maybe it was) and berate him for not securing the door upon his exit. Instead, he discovered that she vacated the room entirely, escaping onto the balcony and shutting the door.

Kakashi sighed and prepared to face the music as he joined her outside.

* * *

Cheeks tinted pink; the rosette looked ready to throttle him. "I'm sorry." She gritted, and her blush crept down her neck.

"Sorry that you frightened me half-to-death or sorry that you saw my ass crack?" he joked, trying to lighten the invisible tension hanging in the air. It wasn't _that_ big of a deal; he figured at one point his teammates would manage to catch a peek.

"Both." The kunoichi sighed and cracked a shaky smile as she attempted a joke. "But it's apparent you do your squats."

Do his squa— Kakashi blinked stupidly for a few seconds, unsure if he heard her right. "Did you just…?"

"Compliment your butt? Yes," Sakura confirmed although her cheeks were still stained a lovely pink. "Can we go now?"

"Do we _have_ to?"

"Yes."

Kakashi looked skyward as if to ask for divine intervention before sighing plaintively and trudging after her. If only Sakura had told them to piss off so he could enjoy a nice, long nap in the cool air… "Why can't we be assholes again?"

* * *

Not long after arriving at the restaurant located beneath their hotel suite, they were led to a secluded table at the rear and given two mugs of beer. The place had a friendly jovial atmosphere; yellow fairy lights hung from the ceiling casting a warm glow over the cherrywood walls, and fresh-looking green plants decorated the corners and the windows, softening the browns and blacks of the doors and floors. Delicious scents of well-cooked food and relaxing music permeated the autumn air and teased Sakura's nose, drawing a pleading grumble from her empty stomach.

Kakashi gracefully eased himself into the seat next to her as the wall he favoured was positioned behind them and the entrance before them.

The calming air was quickly killing any lingering awkwardness between them, and she found she could easily meet Kakashi's eyes and smile at him. "Nice, huh?"

"Indeed." The copy-ninja reached behind her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to his side, much like every other couple around them was positioned. Sakura relaxed comfortably into his embrace and felt his nose brushing her temple as he leant into her.

Breathing in the scent of her hair, he relaxed too and let out a soft exhale. "You smell nice."

A wave of shyness assaulted Sakura, and she felt heat creeping up her cheeks as she abashedly replied, "You know smelling people is creepy, right?"

Another whiff of air echoed in her ear as Kakashi inhaled deeply. "Mhm. Maybe. I don't do it on purpose; I have a sensitive nose."

"What do I smell like?" Sakura's eyes widened as her brain realised the words that escaped her mouth. Why the hell did she ask him that?

If Kakashi thought it was weird, he gave no verbal indication, instead choosing to go unceremoniously quiet. A slow moment passed, where she was hyper aware of his electric breathing on her face and his warm arm around her shoulder. And then he spoke, and it was a low, intimate imitation of his voice. "Your hair smells strongly of lavender with the undertones of sea salt and mint tea… and your skin… it smells of your perfume… violet, ivy… iris, amaryllis, exotic liquorice and vanilla." He chuckled deeply, and her position allowed her to feel it as a rumble in his chest. "It's like standing in a garden, Sakura."

The way he breathed her name —and she was positive her name has never sounded quite so heated— sent a shiver down her spine that she fought to hold back. "Y-yeah?" Her voice cracked unintentionally, and she regretted asking him, hell, she regretted trusting him to give her a simple answer.

Something about having his nose against the space below her ear as he _smelled_ her was too intimate to deny. "Mhm," he hummed, and she felt the quiet sound reverberate in his chest before she heard it in her ear, low and… "I can smell your nail polish, it doesn't feel unpleasant, but it clashes with your other scents. And your body wash… something like roses and mulberry extracts." …sexy.

This time she did shiver, and she sensed his smile on her skin. He had pinpointed every smell that clung to her; identified every ingredient in her perfume and body wash. Heck, he was able to catch the faint lingering smell of her tea from this morning on her hair. "Your nose is scary," she said in a wobbly voice, and her eyes caught the greying couple approaching them with a flicker of relief.

"So I've been told," he confessed and leant back just as Mr. and Mrs. Katsuki arrived at their table, smiling gaily as they took their seats.

"Good evening," Mrs. Katsuki greeted the couple warmly while her husband remained quiet and smiled politely at them. Kakashi was seriously beginning to contemplate the idea that the man was mute, the Copy Ninja hadn't heard him say a single word since their first meeting.

"It is indeed." Kakashi eased himself back into his chair, allowing his arm to rest on the back of Sakura's, who's face was slowly returning to its natural colour.

"We didn't want to order any food before you got here," Sakura explained when the couple eyed their half-drunken beer.

"That's fine; we're not really hungry." And those were the first words they'd heard from Mr. Katsuki's mouth. "Hiroko only wanted to spy on our son's date."

Hiroko's face flushed a dark red, and she stammered, clearly embarrassed at being outed by her husband. "T-toshiya! They don't need to know that!"

Sakura felt a giggle burst from between her sealed lips and bit her cheek. "Where is he, your son?"

Hiroko sighed as Toshiya turned in his seat and pointed to the other end of the vast room, where two men sat: a dark haired one wearing thick, blue glasses and a silver-haired foreign looking male that was laughing convivially at something his partner said.

Sakura's eyebrows shot up in incredulity, and she whirled to face her partner, palm slamming against the table top as a laugh bubbled in her chest. "Oh look, you're not the only silver-haired man under forty!"

Rolling his eyes, Kakashi replied dryly, "How fascinating." His sarcasm was not lost on their dinner guests, who burst into merry giggles.

The dark haired man's gaze suddenly settled on their direction and Sakura watched in fascination as he nearly toppled out of his chair and simultaneously jumped out of his skin. It was like nothing she'd ever seen; he flinched profoundly in shock at seeing his parents, so much that he knocked his knee at the underside of the table, yelped and went skidding to the ground as he ungracefully slid out of his seat.

"Yuri?!" His partner gasped in concern, kneeling on the ground next to him.

"He's surely graceful for a skater," Toshiya chortled as he watched the silver-haired man help Yuri onto his feet and pat his back consolingly.

Sakura's eyes burned from the strain of restraining her laughter at the poor man's misfortune. Kakashi didn't put forth the same effort for he was squeezing her shoulder for dear life as laughter rocked his build.

"Ah," Kakashi took a shaky breath and flicked off a tear at the corner of his eye. "He looks like a funny fella."

They watched Yuri and his date flounder through the crowd and out of the restaurant at considerable speed, eliciting a new round of chuckles from his parents and Sakura.

"They've been together for years, and Yuri still acts like he's on his first date." Hiroko sighed wistfully as she rested her chin on her upturned palm. "I was hoping I'd see Victor propose."

Sakura's widened, and she gasped, "Oh! Are they getting engaged?"

"Oh, no," Mrs Katsuki snorted into her hand. "They already are, kind of, engaged. This is the official thing —but enough of that, what about you two? How did he propose?"

She tilted her chin in Kakashi's direction, and Sakura decided it was payback time for when he made her deal with this couple alone that afternoon. "Oh, he didn't. I proposed to him."

Kakashi's head turned in her direction so fast it was a miracle he didn't give himself a concussion. He stared at her with wide questioning charcoal orbs, and she had to fight to swallow her laughter at the way his knee jerked abruptly to slam to the underside of their table, much like Yuri did a few minutes ago.

Mrs Katsuki gasped, delighted. "Oh, I love it when mainstreams are broken!"

"Well, I wasn't going to wait forever." Sakura rolled her eyes in exaggeration. "He just couldn't grow the courage to go through with it, so I dragged him to the busiest district in town and got down on one knee." Sakura's story was met with a delighted squeal, a chortle and stunned silence from her partner. "He said yes."

"You got yourself a good woman." Mrs Katsuki winked at him, and Kakashi sank in his seat with an air of defeat, secretly pinching Sakura's thigh under the table. He was so getting her back for this later, she knew it, but Sakura never backed out on some harmless challenge…

"Indeed." And for the icing on the cake, she leant over and pressed a soft but lingering kiss to Kakashi's masked cheek. "Right, dear?"

Much to her delight, Kakashi stammered, "R-right."

Yes, missions —and dinner with strangers— could indeed be fun if you put your mind into them.

* * *

 ** _Ahhhhh I'm not reading this chapter anymore I'm done. I reread it so much I hate it at this point so excuse any typos/mistakes._**

 ** _If you liked this -and I hope you did- please review and let me know. Thanks for all the support this story has received so far, you guys are amazing. There isn't much action going on in the story yet, but I promise, it's coming._**

 ** _I did enjoy including YOI, I love that show so much._**

 ** _Question: I listen to a few songs while writing this story that I honestly think suit it. Would you like it if I created a playlist and shared these songs with you?_**

 ** _Beta'd by Denilmo. -Rams x_**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: A Battle Of Wills**

Women, in Kakashi's opinion, were a necessary pain. Like everything else in the world, they came with their set of good and bad. Take alcohol for an example; it was bitter in taste but it numbed your senses and got you drunk. Women in that sense were a lot of work, but at the end of the day, they were there to share a laugh with you and be attentive.

If you haven't already gathered as much from the analogy, Kakashi Hatake was kind of, sort of, maybe drunk. Just a little bit. At least, that was what he told himself when he stumbled slightly and Sakura caught him by the sleeve of his shirt.

The rosette giggled, her cheeks as flushed as her hair, the moon reflecting in her eyes. In that moment, in all his drunken glory, he couldn't take his eyes off her. She danced —yes, because somehow, while drunk, she still managed to look graceful— her way to his side, her elbow intertwining with his. "You're sooo drunk."

Kakashi scoffed and managed to hold himself up without her help. "Like you aren't."

Giggling, she poked his side as she said "I am" like she was proud of her intoxication. His partner, he had to admit, was the prettiest mess he'd ever seen, standing there with her hair mussed and her eyes cloudy, watching him from beneath dark lashes, plumped pink lips forming a carefree smile that made him long to lean over and taste— _Shit, I'm drunk._

They stumbled a few more steps before Sakura rounded on the unsuspecting man and pressed him against a streetlight. She beamed at him as she rested her chin on his chest and hugged his middle. "Carry me?"

Kakashi blinked dazedly at her, his clouded mind needing a few seconds to process her words. "Uh… I'm not sure that's a good idea."

"Pleaseee?" She pouted, her lower lip jutting out almost invitingly, begging him to nibble on it, to— _end thought, end fucking thought._

"Okay. Fine. Yeah."

She grinned, displaying a perfect row of pearly white, straight teeth, her pink cheeks popping endearingly and he wanted, more than anything, more than ever, to gently hold her face in place and kiss her breath— _fuck!_

"Maybe we drank too much," Sakura muttered into his shoulder, slowly rubbing her face against him like she was trying to keep herself awake.

Blinking slowly, and trying to collect his thoughts as they trudged down the ally to round to the backdoor of the hotel, he remembered the initial reason to why they excessively drank. "We had to keep up appearances."

It was true. Not only was everyone in the restaurant drinking themselves into a stupor, but even Mr. and Mrs. Katsuki were having one drink after the other, and so Kakashi and Sakura felt obliged to do the same. On one hand, it was alright for Sakura, she was probably already detoxing her system. He, on the other hand, would have one heck of a hangover the following day.

They reached their room in a daze, and Sakura's scent clung to him like perfume, tickling his nose and intoxicating him like the alcohol he had consumed. He sat her down on the threshold and massaged the bridge of his nose — _too drunk, maybe I should shower._

Slim arms wrapped around his bigger build and he sensed her lips between his shoulder blades. Kakashi tensed up as he was once again assaulted by her scent, but didn't make a move to leave or reciprocate as he heard her murmur, with a touch of humour. "Thank you for being the Shizune to my Tsunade."

The Copy Ninja couldn't help it, he chuckled and patted the hands around him before gently extracting himself from the warmth of her embrace. "I'm gonna shower," he told her and patted her head gently.

He regretted the action instantly, for the way she leant into his touch and closed her eyes like —like she _craved_ it— had his throat tightening up. He swallowed thickly. "Go to sleep, Sakura, okay?"

"Mhmm," she hummed, remaining in spot until Kakashi managed to gather all his will to pull away and leave, swearing to never ever drink around her again. Who thought she'd be this distracting?

He shut the door behind him and ripped his mask down, gulping in air, and watching his flushed face cool. Kakashi couldn't think clearly but something was definitely wrong. Why was he reacting to Sakura _now?_ It had to be the alcohol.

His mind swam in circles, swirling slowly like he was swimming towards la-la land. Being drunk was supposed to be wonderful, but right now it was giving him a pre-hungover headache. Sighing, he palmed his right eye and began to strip. He belatedly realised he forgot to grab a change of clothes and cursed softly under his breath; how did he become such a mess in a few hours?

Never mind, too late, he thought. Hopefully, Sakura would be asleep once he was done. And first thing's first… His brows furrowed and he stood stock still as he gathered the energy flowing within him to one spot. A few silent moments passed before his palm glowed white; time to treat his shitty hangover.

* * *

Sakura sat crosslegged on the king sized bed, monitoring her chakra flow and making sure it slowly circulated her system. Being drunk was never a problem to her, or to any elite shinobi; all of them took into account an immediate attack. Jōnin were never caught unaware like that.

The sound of the shower was loud in the vast room, breaking the silence of the night, but somehow it was relaxing to listen to the cascading water —it made focusing easier. A day had been wasted playing fake couple instead of gathering information, and it weighed heavily on perfectionist and detail-obsessed people like Sakura.

And even so, she couldn't bring herself to truly regret it. Kakashi had been laughing uninhibitedly as he listened to the stories the couple told of their son and his boyfriend/fiancé/maybe husband at this point and as the night droned on, Sakura felt like she was losing an internal battle –one she wasn't aware of to begin with. The whole time her stomach would knot itself over and a wave of heat kept passing from Kakashi's touch on her shoulder to every other part of her. The weight of his hand on her didn't feel uncomfortable, even when his palm became clammy –weirdly, it felt grounding. What made it worse is that she could tell that he was having an internal battle too; what about, she was clueless.

The bathroom door creaked open. "Sakura?"

"Yeah?" she called back, wondering why he hadn't shown up in the room yet.

A beat of silence followed before, "You're awake?"

Sakura snorted. "No, I'm just sleep-talking."

He showed up then, stalking nonchalantly to his bag and... Sakura's mouth dried. He was clad only in a towel and his mask, hair damp and dripping over his naked flushed torso. She hadn't been expecting that and wasn't prepared at all so she couldn't stop her jaw from dropping.

"Sorry," he apologised upon seeing her reaction and raised a handful of clothes, "I forgot these."

It was hitting her again, like a truck, that Kakashi was wholly and undeniably _male_. He was handsome, sure, if the uncovered part of his face was anything to go by, he was most definitely good looking. But the rest of him… like now, barely covered, his shower slick, well-toned body on display… Kakashi was attractive. Sexy, even.

Sakura looked away, suddenly hyper-aware of the blush creeping down her neck. Maybe traces of the alcohol that they drank earlier still lingered in her system, why else would she be having these ridiculous thoughts? Kakashi was Kakashi, her… her _friend._

He crawled into the space next to her once he was clad in grey sweats and his body-fitting undershirt, Icha Icha in hand. Sakura's eyes slowly moved from his face to the book in his hold and back. "Whatever happened with Toishi earlier today?" she asked because there was no way in hell she wanted him to read Icha Icha now when she was this confused.

To her delight —and relief— Kakashi snapped the book shut and turned his face in her direction. "I've wanted to talk you about that all day but thought I should wait till tomorrow, aren't you sleepy?"

The rosette shook her head adamantly, sleep was the _last_ thing on her mind right now. "No, tell me."

Kakashi pursed his lip and regarded her carefully, obviously in the process of piecing together the information he gathered. "He's… really closed. I really had to pry to get him to talk, even for a little bit. He doesn't boast or gloat about his company and he downplays his wealth, it's confusing."

Sakura frowned. "That's strange. What did he tell you?"

"General facts mostly, like how he develops and sells medicine, which we already know. But he did let slip that he's had a recent good deal, which may or may not be what Ino's prisoner witnessed." Kakashi hummed contemplatively and turned to look at the glass door of their balcony, where the light of their bedside lamp reflected their image clearly against the darkness of the night's sky. "He also briefly mentioned a partner. They could be involved, he sounded like he trusted the man above all, so maybe… it's nothing solid, but that's what I have so far."

The rosette slumped back against the headboard with a frustrated sigh. "Can't we just… break into his home? Go through his documents?"

Shaking his head, the Copy Ninja slumped back in defeat too. "No. He's rich, Sakura, he definitely has ninja hired left and right to protect him and whatever dirt he's sweeping under the carpet. It'd be too risky but I guess we'd have to if this mission turns up in vain."

The pink-haired woman slid further down until her head rested on the pillow. "The only piece of information I gathered from Akiko is that he never takes her along on business trips, so whatever it is she's probably not involved. I don't understand it though, she's pregnant and they've been married for six months. What are they doing here?"

Kakashi straightened in surprise. "She's pregnant?" he echoed, eyes slightly wide. "That's… suspicious. Maybe Toishi is planning to do something here. I guess we'll have to closely monitor him tomorrow. It too late for a honeymoon and too early for a reminiscing trip and well… she's already pregnant, that kind of defies the purpose of a supposedly romantic trip."

Sakura had no idea why her cheeks warmed at that but she nodded anyway. "I agree, and we could switch between spying on him so he doesn't get suspicious. I'll tail him tomorrow."

The silver-haired man nodded his agreement and scooted lower on the bed to rest on the pillow, his body turning to face her. "Just be careful, he seems highly guarded all the time. It could just be a personality trait but he could be hiding something. I don't want him to flee the island in fear of being discovered."

Charcoal eyes surveyed her face closely for signs of hesitation —there was none— and then he smiled. "Get some rest now, it's two in the morning."

Sakura was sleepy, but something about their position inspired butterflies in her stomach. Kakashi wasn't pressed closely to her or invading her personal space, quite the contrary. He left comfortable space between them, one that would allow her to stretch and turn however she desired without disturbing him but… gazing back at him, she concluded it was the way their bodies faced each other and the dimness of the room. Again, there was that feeling of intimacy she couldn't fathom.

She supposed sharing a bed would be intimate if they weren't ninja and she didn't need to do it regularly with all the male members of her team and in much more confined quarters. She'd had to sleep in the same sleeping bag as Naruto before and that was perhaps the most uncomfortable five hours of her life, but she lived.

Now, in this large bed, it felt even more confining and the sole reason being that he was watching her with sleepy eyes, his blinking growing slower and slower —when was the last time she watched anyone slowly fall asleep, anyway? Not since her four-year-old cousin was a baby.

Finally, he turned over onto his back and shut off the last source of light in the room. "Good night, Sakura."

"Night," she whispered, pulling the cover up to her chin, thankful for the complete absence of light. That way she couldn't see him and so she wouldn't ponder anything further. "Kakashi."

* * *

There was a soft light in the distance, peeking from behind humongous mountains, touching the darkened skies with rays of yellow and orange, painting them with reds and purples. It was a breathtaking sight, especially from where she sat on the dry grass, a warm figure next to her, dwarfing her side.

Something felt strange, however, like she wasn't quite in the scene, just aware of her surroundings, of the light breeze on her exposed legs and the warm gentle fingers in her hair. Looking up, she was met by dark brown hair tickling her forehead and gentle features smiling down at her. The woman that held her had the most comforting aura she'd had the pleasure of experiencing like she was a miniature sun —she reminded Sakura of Naruto's warmth, which was rare to find.

Brilliant blue eyes were smiling down at her, and when she spoke, her voice was soft, comforting and full of affection. "Beautiful isn't it?"

Sakura didn't have the option of replying or moving and— _oh,_ that's right, she must be dreaming. Vividly.

"Your father and I used to come here before I got sick." The woman hummed, her fingers brushing languidly through Sakura's —or maybe Kakashi's, for all she knew this could be another vision— short strands.

"Are you not sick anymore, mum?" The hopeful voice of a little child echoed from her throat, even when it didn't belong to her and Sakura was starting to realise that perhaps she was truly experiencing this memory through Kakashi and that this beautiful woman was his mother.

Her heart skipped a beat at that. So this was the woman that brought the famous Copy Ninja into the world? Sakura was awed.

The brunette chuckled sadly. "I am baby, but I wanted to see this one more time."

It was silent afterwards for a long time as they watched the sun rise and the woman was holding closely onto her, filling her with warmth and affection until she felt like she might burst. Suddenly, a small notebook was pushed into her tiny hands, and she looked up at Kakashi's mother in surprise.

The brunette's smile was rueful. "Can you promise me something, Kakashi?"

"Anything."

"I want you to keep this for me." She pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "But don't read it just yet."

"When should I read it?" The young questioning voice was again bursting from her unmoving throat and Sakura was now sure she was living this out from within Kakashi.

"Maybe when you're older." She conceded and ruffled his hair, but everything in her demeanour was sorrowful and it choked Sakura for reasons she couldn't comprehend.

The dream shifted to the familiar home of her former teacher, and in his larger, battle-scarred hands was the same book from before, albeit in a slightly more tired condition. When she looked down at the opened age-yellowed pages, she knew she was seeing them from behind Kakashi's irises.

 _My dearest Kakashi,_

 _Do you ever envy the birds? I've always been jealous of their ability to fly away, to leave behind all the pain and misery._

 _It's been three months since the doctors told me I'm terminally ill, and it hasn't fully sunk in yet. I'm dying. You don't know that yet but there's no way I can look at you, my little precious four-year-old, and tell you your mommy's not going to be around much longer._

 _I hope you understand. I don't fear death baby boy, and I never will. But I fear for you. I wanted to be there to guide you but my days are short and numbered. I'm sorry I was forced to leave you behind and I'm sorry this will be the only piece you have left of me but I hope you know that I love you more than life itself. You'll always, always be my favourite boy._

 _Chihiro._

Only then did it fully sink in, that that was the last sunrise Kakashi had ever seen with his mother.

* * *

Her tears fell silently and effortlessly, distorting her vision and soaking her pillow. It was entirely unfair for her to be put in this position and not only because those were personal and treasured memories that belonged to Kakashi and Kakashi _only_ , but because they opened up a world of pain for her to soak in.

Every time she looked at him she recalled a moment in his life where he was dying, a moment where he was vulnerable enough to cry, a moment where the world nearly broke him. It was insightful, truly, but the burden of it was enough to make her want to collapse. What would Kakashi do if he found out about those dreams? It would undoubtedly send him running to the hills. God knows that's what she would have done.

All that aside, she couldn't deny those dreams were slowly changing her view of him. What she used to call a tardy emotionless man that can't be bothered was now… someone who suffered so much and concealed it so well it made her ache to hide him from the world, somewhere where no one could hurt him anymore.

Sakura wiped her tears with the back of her hand, feeling more trailing down her cheeks. Damn him and those stupid dreams.

* * *

Kakashi could smell the salt of her tears, and without looking over to confirm he knew she was crying. It baffled him but he guessed it was a bad dream; he noticed she'd been having those quite frequently as of late. It made his stomach twist uncomfortably; he _hated_ it when she cried. Especially when it was soundless crying that consisted of rivers of tears and nothing else, it made him worry that much more because he knew all too well what it meant —Sakura wanted to hide her hurt from him.

He would've preferred frame-shaking sobs, like when she was a twelve-year-old, that way he'd have an excuse to reach over and comfort her. He wasn't sure she'd appreciate that treatment now. Nevertheless, he couldn't just ignore her like that…

"Sakura?" he said softly, but made no move to turn to face her, instead, his eyes remained fixed on the ceiling. "Are you okay…?"

A pause followed where it felt as if the whole world was quiet and then her small shaky intake of breath broke it. "Y-yeah. Just a bad dream."

The Copy Nin had guessed correctly. However, let it be said he was not the most affectionate person in the world, but for her, he would try. "Do you… want to talk about it?"

"No," she whispered and then rolled away to give him her back. "I'm sorry. Please go back to sleep it's still early."

Kakashi's frown deepened and he entertained the thought of pestering her but decided against it. Sakura, like him, hated being or feeling vulnerable. He should know better than to deliberately put her in a situation as such.

No matter, it still didn't explain the sudden ache in his heart when she sniffled quietly into her pillow.

* * *

At eight-thirty in the morning, Toishi hit the gym. At eight-forty-five, Sakura showed up in a tank top and a pair of joggers that hung low on her waist, hopping onto the treadmill next to him. She gave a friendly wave as she kick-started the machine and watched curiously as his eyes slowly raked over her figure before acknowledging her greeting with a simple nod.

Confusing as ever, this man. He had his machine at the speed six-point-one and Sakura gave him a long side way look before keying up her setting to six-point-three.

It earned her an imperceptible eyebrow raise, but Toishi seemed up for a challenge for the dark-haired man increased his speed to six-point-five, the corner of his mouth twitching up in a smug smirk.

A silent and verbally unacknowledged battle ensued between the kunoichi and the millionaire, but unbeknownst to one of them, the rigorous exercise was a part of an intricate plan. And unbeknownst to the other, one had a wicked plan.

It didn't take long for them to reach running speed as they kept trying to outplay each other. Finally, Sakura hopped off, putting on a show of being out of breath, while frankly, she could've kept going for hours if she desired. As a shinobi, she remembered days where she'd done nothing but run from dusk to dawn —days like when an information leak was at risk or days when a teammate was in danger and needed immediate backup.

She headed for the varying weights on the rack by the mirror and was surprised when she found Toishi had followed her. It seemed the man wasn't done with their competition just yet, which was exactly what she wanted. So when he grabbed two heavy weights, Sakura strolled casually past him and picked a heavier one. It didn't require her chakra, and she knew better than to _use_ chakra when it was unknown if there was another ninja in the area who might sense her.

Another eyebrow raise was given by Toishi, but this time accompanied by a challenging smirk like he was daring her to exercise with such heavy weights. That disbelieving look pushed Sakura beyond her mission to outdo him.

Two hours later, Sakura was carefully following Toishi, making sure she stayed out of sight but something was off, like a dull tingling sensation in the back of her head, prickling uncomfortably, insisting something was misplaced —something very important.

It wasn't the time to dwell over the weird ticklish sensation travelling down her spine, not at all because Toishi was finally heading for the swimming pool, no doubt to swim and cool down. It was time for her plan; she was going to quickly sneak into his room and uncover his schemes. His presence on Naka's island was too suspicious to deny and she could only hope this mission would come to an end soon enough; Sakura was done embarrassing herself in front of her former sensei. One more tear-inspiring dream and she might just die from mortification. Kakashi probably already found her pathetic enough.

A dull throbbing began to creep it's way to the forefront of her brain, pulsing in time with her heartbeat and thrumming away annoyingly just behind her right eye. _Dammit, what now?_

She glided down the hallways with a swiftness that would've put a fox to shame, heading towards the east wing where room two-two-six was located, where a certain Akiko may or may not be there…

A simple jutsu quietly unlocked the heavy door and Sakura slipped inside unnoticed, but by now her head was pulsing incessantly, making her whole head ache like she had the worst hangover of her life. _No time to heal that now…_ Sakura crept inside the darkened room; the curtains were drawn shut, blocking the sunlight and concealing her in the shadows.

One small pulse of chakra sent across the wall told Sakura she was alone. If only she knew how wrong she was…

 _Smack!_

The world blurred and spun, and before her brain could register the danger, the pink kunoichi hit the ground with a resounding thud.

A deep voice chuckled maliciously, the raspy note of their voice echoing in the vast room. _"Stupid woman…"_

* * *

 ** _Hello dearest readers, sorry for the delay of this update I have some family problems going on and no wifi. I'm very excited for you to see the next chapter (it's half way done) because I'm enjoying writing it so much!_**

 _ **Before I list some of the songs I promised the last chapter, I have an important question. In the old version, NaruSasu was a thing. However, in this new version, I'm going to give you a choice. I created a poll asking who do you think Naruto should end up with so quickly head to** **the link on my tumblr (it won't let me post it here, I'm bouncyirwin)**_ **and let me know (it's anonymous of course)! Pair with most votes wins x**

 ** _Now onto the music list, I'll give you two songs every chapter:_**

 ** _1) Michi - To You All_**

 ** _2) LP - Lost On You_**

 ** _Review for KakaSaku fluff ;-P_**

 ** _Until next time! -Rama_**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Before I Come Undone**

"This is KU-13 reporting, we're in position." A voice hissed, shuffling closer to the corner of a wide corridor to glimpse the metal door leading to the storage room. "Do you copy?"

"Copy that. KU-13, please proceed." The firm reply came. The ginger-haired man reached into his weapon pouch and retrieved a small pick as he turned to face his three similarly dressed-in-black teammates. "Cover me."

Three heads nodded in unison and disappeared in a puff of smoke as their leader slithered away to the door, ensuring he remained hidden from view. He made a quick work of picking the lock and sliding in. He pressed his ear piece. "I'm in."

"Spectacular news, Ryu. Go to row F1 and find closet 15." A deep familiar voice chimed in his ear, giving the ginger-man a pause.

"…What are you doing here?" Ryu asked his long time friend since childhood as he moved along the narrow lines of tall, silver-coloured steel closets.

"You'd think he'd be excited to see me." The voice in the microphone scoffed to someone nearby before replying. "What do you mean what, Ryu? I organised this operation, I'll see it through."

"You doubt my efficiency?" Golden eyes narrowed in displeasure, lips pursing.

A huff echoed via the transmitter in his ear. "Don't be silly. This is important. Get the girl and get out. No witnesses, no mistakes. We're this close to achieving perfect form, she's our last resort. Be careful."

Ryu didn't dignify the order with a response as his eyes scanned the numbered signs hanging over endless rows of lockers. Just as his eyes caught glimpse of his destination, a rough snap jerked the unlocked storage room door open. Ryu barely had enough time to dive into the nearest closet as the one and only Kakashi Hatake slipped into the room, eyes angry, body coiled and ready to spring at a moment's notice.

Ryu held still and completely suppressed his chakra. It wouldn't do to alert the Copy Ninja —Ryu knew he was no match for him just yet, not without the drug, not without his special heating jutsu— and so he seized all movement and waited.

One by one, his enemy started slamming locker doors open with a vengeance, the rough sound of metal clattering echoed from rows away. Hatake moved swiftly and determinedly, closing in on Ryu's closet, his near-silent footfalls growing firmer, more agitated. He could sense the thundering chakra of the other man roiling fiercely within. Hatake was anxious, Ryu could tell. Such a foreign emotion from the usually collected and calm man.

 _Bam…!_ Another door knocked open, now on the same row.

 _Bam! bam! bam!_ Six, five, four, advancing closer to Ryu, who seized breathing and prepared for the Copy Ninja's impending arrival. His fingers sought the paper bomb attached to a kunai in his weapon holster and waited with bated breath.

Another door slammed viciously against the metal, much closer, _three…_

"Sakura!" Hatake cried, sounding distressed. Ryu thought it extremely convenient to attack that very second when the man was distracted by his emotions; what kind of an idiot called himself a shinobi when he couldn't rein in his personal feelings? What a loser! But Ryu had strict orders not to engage with Kakashi Hatake and so he remained hidden as Hatake shuffled through the nearby closet.

And then the Copy Ninja disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Fuck!" A furious Ryu punched the locker door, denting it.

* * *

Flames —for the blaze she felt was surely hell's fire— slowly but agonisingly, crawled up her spine, inched excruciatingly through her bones, liquefying them, and turning them into molten lava beneath her muscles.

Unhurriedly, oh-so-leisurely, it extended up her neck, scalded her, killed her as it engulfed her brain in a pool of fire, dissolving her conscious and destroying memories and thoughts alike. Although one persisted like an anchor, screaming at her, growling up a storm like a cornered wolf, _get up, get up, get up!_

Her shinobi danger alarm blared furiously in the back of her mind, somewhere far, far away, beyond the inferno roasting her alive. _Danger, danger!_ Her subconscious shrieked, its throat raw, and there wasn't a single thing she could do but shout, scream and cry internally until whatever flicker of conscious she had left burst into flames and turned into ashes.

And then, just as gradually, the heat began to recede back to one fixed point in the centre of her brain, slithering away from her toes and leaving them uncomfortably cold like icicles. It may have been hours before the last remaining bit of warmth in her body diminished and relocated to her brain and Sakura was left a shivering mess of limbs, teeth chattering together and body drenched in cold sweat.

Everything in her body, but especially her bones, ached consistently leaving Sakura lying on a soft mattress hurting like nothing she'd ever experienced before. So much that she could not string a single thought together except _this is hell._

"…kura…"

Her brain swirled around slowly within her head, swimming around at the edge of consciousness but drifting away every time she neared the shore.

"…ra…"

Straying farther and farther the harder she tried to grasp at the ray of awareness within her reach, _please, no…_

"…Sakura…"

A distant voice was calling her name, somebody she knew but couldn't quite place. Somebody so dear…

"…Sakura…"

He sounded so desperate —the voice— but so soothing and familiar, like a warm blanket straight out of the dryer. She clung onto it like a life-support line, clawing to hold onto the single thread of consciousness amidst the endless sea of fire she was drifting through.

"…kura, please…"

If only she had control of her limbs so she could reach and comfort this man, tell him she's alive, although she felt far from it. If anything, she should be dead.

"…dammit Sakura…"

And then the fuzzy blanket cloaking her mind slowly lifted and she cautiously located her fingers and eyes, and eventually the rest of her. Something cool laid across her forehead and a mop of silver hair hung just over her bleary eyes, falling over familiar, bottom-less, charcoal eyes.

That's right, that soothing, quiet tone could only belong to one man, a man she'd never been happier to see in her life. "Ka…kashi…"

* * *

Kakashi looked down at her unfocused emerald eyes with uncontainable relief. When he had found her passed out in the storage room closet after searching for her in every nook and cranny, he had nestled her in his arms to find her fever skyrocketing to dangerous levels.

He knew from experience that fever was a medic's worst nightmare, for they could heal through all kinds of hardships but the one that inhibited their minds. For three days he stayed by her side, resorting to using cool towels to bring down her temperature when his basic medical ninjutsu failed to help her.

"Ka…kashi…" Her voice was hoarse and broken, and he didn't think he hated himself more in the past few years than he did right that second. This was his fault, giving her space because she was embarrassed had been a stupid idea. They were here as a team to investigate together.

He hadn't even been able to search for the culprit who did this to her, to see if it was Toishi, fearing that if he left her side, she might just slip from between his fingers like so many others before her. So dire was his situation that he was compelled to write Tsunade a letter requesting back-up and send Pakkun to deliver it.

No reply has come in yet, and no backup showed up, leaving Kakashi unsure of whether anyone would be coming at all.

He gently hushed the pink-haired woman who looked on the verge of passing out again and removed the wet cloth off her forehead to press his glowing hand to it. She still burned like the surface of an oven.

The kunoichi leant into his touch, her breath slightly laboured, "Kakashi," she rasped, "what… happened… to me?" She panted, squirming as her body tried to capture heat from her sweat-soaked blanket.

Kakashi felt fingers of ice claw at his heart as a wave of fear washed over him. "You… don't remember? Sakura you were passed out in the storage room where they stored lost luggage."

Confused foggy eyes sought his and she blinked away at glassy emerald, trying to clear her vision. "Huh…? No… I was…" she blinked furiously, her face twisting in confusion. "No I wasn't… I was here," she rambled, shivering violently in the blanket she cocooned herself in.

"Calm down," Kakashi soothed, deciding to have that conversation later when he noticed the way her hair was sticking to her glistening forehead and her flushed cheeks. He got up from next to her and moved to the side of the bed. "I haven't been able to move you in two days. You need to shower and cool down, come on."

She made an anguished sound at the back of her throat as he pried the blanket off her. The Copy Nin helped her sit up and rushed to steady her when she nearly tumbled over onto the ground from how hard her teeth ground together.

Kakashi held tightly onto her shoulder as he bent down and lifted her off her feet. Small, trembling fingers reached to clutch onto his shirt as he carried her to the bathroom and sat her on the edge of the sink, letting her lean against the mirror as not to fall.

She whimpered when her legs made contact with the cold marble causing the Copy Nin to rub her arm apologetically. "Bear with me, it'll be over soon," he promised as he moved to fill the tub with warm water and soap.

"K-Kakashi," she stuttered through her shiver, "w-what's happening to me?"

"Fever," he responded as he stalked back to her side. "But I'm not sure what caused it. You were tailing Toishi and you said you'd be back by lunch. You never showed up so I went searching for you." He recounted, remembering the nagging twisting in his gut that told him something very, very wrong had happened. It had taken all his strength not to tear through every room in the building to find her. "I eventually found you in the storage room, three hours later. No wounds, no nothing. Just a small bump at the back of your head, but you falling could have caused that."

Sakura touched gingerly at the back of her head and winced profoundly. When she called forth her medical chakra, it moved in a jagged frenzied stream through her coils. When she tried to regulate it, to reduce it to a thin layer of healing energy, her brain hurt and her hold on the energy faltered and snapped. Sighing, she buried her face in her hands and took shaky calming breaths.

It was a nightmare, not being able to use her medical powers. Usually, medics don't heal their fever or interfere with it, letting their bodies react naturally to invading pathogens. In rare cases, when medical ninja needed to be aware and on the run, they resorted to using a special jutsu that delayed the symptoms of disease early on.

But seeing as she was knocked out, she couldn't make that call. Besides, something about her condition nagged her. It didn't feel like her usual fever; that feeling of molten lava moving in her veins was foreign and terrifying.

She sensed him before she felt his nimble fingers gently pry her hands off her face.

Worried emerald eyes met fierce and sure charcoal ones. The only expression that came to mind when gazing into his eyes was 'the calm before the storm'. He had that look he got on the battlefield when sizing his opponent up, sharp and unforgiving.

Kakashi held onto her hands in her lap. "I know what you're thinking. Stop worrying," he said slowly, leaning down to rest his forehead against hers and forcing her eyes to remain leveled with his, trapping her in his stormy gaze. "I promise you, I'll find who did this to you."

The threat in his voice reached her loud and clear, _and then I'll make them wish they were never born._

Sakura gulped and nodded against him. To her utter relief, his eyes creased in a familiar smile that had been absent for a while now, easing the anxiety twisting her gut.

The tub was half-way full then and he reassuringly squeezed her hands that were still trapped within his bigger ones, getting her attention. His gaze remained firm but held a touch of uncertainty now. "I'm going to help you undress, okay?"

She nodded her consent, her eyes slightly glazed over as the heat and cold in her body fought for dominance, sending waves of fire followed by spikes of ice through her until she felt like she might burst.

Kakashi coaxed her to rest her forehead on his shoulder as his hands found the hem of her shirt and began to carefully tug it up her torso and then over her head and finally down her arms, leaving her clad only in her plain black bra. Grasping her hips firmly in his hands, he helped her off the counter and onto her feet. "Hold onto the counter," he ordered softly as he moved to tug her shorts down her smooth legs, letting them pool around her feet and uncovering her red panties.

The corner of his mouth twitched up, the rosette wore mismatched underwear…

"Pervert." He heard her mutter and she bent heavily on his shoulder for balance as she stepped out of her shorts.

He held her steady as she lumbered her way to the tub and helped her in, making sure she didn't slip and crack her head on the marble ground. "There."

Sakura shivered again and reached behind her for what Kakashi assumed was the clasp of her bra. She wriggled and twisted in an attempt to undo it but her fingers were unsteady and uncooperative and he worried she might slip and drown.

The Copy Ninja watched her for a moment before he decided the clasp wasn't going to get undone anytime soon and took pity on her. He reached over the tub and cautiously pried her hands off, replacing them with his own. With a nimble flick of his fingers, the material gave and fell apart.

Sighing gratefully the rosette moved the straps down her arms and discarded the item on the ground in a sloppy mess before leaning back and letting her body sink further into the tub until her chin touched the water.

Kakashi went back into the main room and dragged one of the two chairs there to the bathroom where he seated himself next to Sakura, and leant in the sink's direction to grab the shampoo bottle.

Sakura's shut eyes flew wide open when she felt his fingers tangle through her hair. His reply was a reassuring smile as he massaged the mint scented product into her pink strands and muttered, "Just relax."

She tried to follow his advice, and just when sleep began to claim her, a knock on the door resounded in the room. Kakashi's soothing massage paused. He had the 'do not disturb' tag on the door handle, surely, it couldn't be the room service. Which meant...

"I'll be right back." He told Sakura, dipping his hands in her bath water to get the foam off his fingers.

When he pulled open the heavy door of their bathroom and stepped out, making sure to close the door after him, he found two men standing within the dimmed room. A particular blond and dark-haired pair known across the nation.

"So you're our back-up," Kakashi stated, watching the stoic Uchiha uncross his arms and straighten from his reclined position against the closet.

"We came as soon as we received the order." Sasuke gave a curt nod before jerking his chin in the bathroom's direction. "How is she?"

"Sick." Kakashi sighed, running a hand through his shaggy silver hair, glad he wasn't handling this situation on his own anymore. "Her fever is through the roof, I ran her a bath."

"K-kakashi," a feminine voice croaked from beyond the door, "is that Sasuke?"

Kakashi turned and pushed open the door a fraction, sticking his head in to find the rosette relaxed in the water, the tap still running. "Yeah. Should I let them in?"

A snort that sounded suspiciously like Naruto echoed. Sakura nodded weakly, sinking further into the murky water so that it covered her up to her mouth. The door swung fully open, revealing her two worried best friends. She waved sheepishly. "Hey guys."

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed as he raced to her side, checking her face for any injuries. "Are you okay?! We were so worried!"

The rosette reached with her drenched palm and patted Naruto's cheek affectionately. "I'll be fine, Naruto." But just as she said that, a shiver jiggled her frame and Kakashi hurried to shut the bathroom door to block the breeze from outside.

He shooed Naruto out of his chair and got to rinsing Sakura's hair by tilting her head back and washing her pink hair as she made small conversation with Naruto about his and Sasuke's most recent mission. He noticed before how much her hair had grown for it reached past her shoulders, but now while running his fingers through it, he realised how thick and long the strands really were.

Sasuke interrupted his musings. "I'm going to check out the storage room. You coming?" The question was directed at Kakashi who looked up and nodded.

"Just give me a minute," he said, moving to grab a towel off the rack, "And get out, both of you."

Naruto's eyes narrowed suspiciously at him but he silently complied, shutting the door behind him and Sasuke. Kakashi huffed and spread open the fluffy towel for Sakura, his head tilting away as she rose from the waters.

It was slightly alarming that he found himself tempted to peak but he blamed that on silly male hormones as he bundled her up and ran his hands up and down her arms to capture her heat. "Do you need help getting dressed…?" He trailed off unsurely, equal parts of his brain wanting and not wanting her to say no.

To his relief (and slight disappointment) she shook her head. "I think… I'll— I'll get Naruto to help me."

 _No, you can't_ was at the tip of his tongue and _what the hell, what makes you think you can decide for her!?_ His thoughts were a mess of confusion to why he would even care. There had been a rumour floating around since forever that Sakura lost her virginity to Naruto, which he kind of found ridiculous; those two had a sibling-like bond he knew he'd never come close to achieving with _anyone._

He nodded, ignoring his buzzing head and taking a step back to look at her. She smiled shyly at him, holding the towel tight around her. "Thanks."

"No problem."

* * *

"Someone was here." Was the first thing Sasuke declared when he stopped in front of closet twelve, tracing the fist-like dent in the iron door. "Someone with anger issues apparently."

Kakashi peered closely at the mark —he could feel light traces of chakra lingering in the small rectangular space and had to wonder how he didn't notice when getting Sakura. "Sakura doesn't remember ending here."

Sasuke frowned and sloped against the closet. "She doesn't? Did she hit her head?"

"I think so, but that doesn't explain how she remembers everything up till the morning before she went missing." Kakashi moved into closet twelve, taking a whiff of the air. "It was a male. Approximately six feet tall."

"Maybe he drugged her," the Uchiha suggested with a shrug.

Kakashi immediately dismissed the idea with a scoff. "It's Sakura, I doubt anyone can sneak close by, especially of the male species, without getting noticed. Besides, she's a medic, her body would immediately recognise the drug and get rid of it. When I found her she was still passed out."

Sasuke pursed his lips. "If we suppose no one snuck up on her, then we're working against someone with a dangerous jutsu. Maybe a kekkei genaki, that enables them to conceal their presence."

"I guess we won't know unless Sakura gets her memory back." Kakashi sighed moving to check the remaining closets. "They'll definitely be back though, so until then, I better keep a close eye on her."

"Haven't you?"

The question took him off guard. "Um," He found himself stammering, "No? We're gathering information we split all the time."

"She tends to get herself into trouble she can't handle," the Uchiha explained apathetically and Kakashi found an unexplainable wave of anger sweeping over him, causing his fists to ball at his sides. Sakura has come so far, and for anyone to disregard that, it was unthinkable.

"Sakura is perfectly capable of looking after herself," he said tersely, turned on his heel and retreated out of the storage room. If Sasuke caught the underlying anger in his tone, he didn't show it, instead following behind him at a brisk pace back to his and Sakura's room.

Upon entering the warm room, Kakashi found Sakura huddled in Naruto's arms, eyes closed, limbs trembling. "Is she asleep?"

Naruto shook his head and caressed her hair worriedly. "Jeez Sakura-chan, you're burning up."

She shivered in reply and buried her face in his chest, letting out an anguished sound as she gritted out from between clenched teeth, "It's s-so damn c-cold."

The blond squeezed her, running sure palms up and down her arms. "Shh, it'll be okay," He pressed his nose into her hair in a barely-there kiss. "You can rest now. Sasuke and I will catch those bastards."

She pulled the blankets so far up her body they covered her almost up to her eyes. She gave a shaky nod and let out a trembling sigh. "I'm so s-sorry."

"Now, now, it's not your fault." The blond chuckled easily and with genuine affection, his fingers threading through her pink strands. "I'll take care of it, I promise. You just get better."

An unexplainable, dreadful longing welled up in Kakashi's chest as he watched the two, huddled together, the blond's safe arms wrapped securely around the rosette's body, holding her to his chest. Sakura looked incredibly weak and vulnerable, shaking in Naruto's arms and a large portion of him was screaming at him to protect her with all he's got, to extract her from Naruto's arms and hold her as closely as she needed for as long as she wanted while another significantly smaller part was wondering what the fuck was wrong with him.

It had to be the oxygen. Something was wrong in this room. Because his feelings were misplaced and bordered on ridiculous.

Then Sasuke said, "Let's go," to Naruto and the blond was apologising profusely to Sakura for having to leave her as he untangled himself from her and stumbled after Sasuke, leaving Kakashi standing frozen in place in front of the shaking rosette. He contemplated sitting in the ugly green armchair that reminded him way too much of Gai, what with the circularly shaped garment draped over its top but one look at Sakura's pleading eyes was all it took for him to succumb to her aid.

He lifted the covers and got in the space next to her, his arms wrapping protectively over her smaller figure and pulling her closer and onto his lap where he nestled her against his chest and wrapped her tightly in a blanket. She followed wordlessly, her head resting on his chest as she curled in his lap, shivering less and breathing deeper, like she may be falling asleep.

"Thank you," she rasped, closing her eyes.

She fit the curve of his side like she was made to be there, snuggled up next to him, and that thought alone was enough to send his heart into a frantic frenzy. He swallowed thickly, his fingers brushing her hair mindlessly, even when her head tilted back at an awkward angle and she buried her face in his throat.

Her scent engulfed him completely alongside her warmth, an intoxicating combination that made him feel incredibly heavy and he suddenly felt as if he was trapped in a box, her presence surrounding his every corner and it became difficult to breathe as she shifted and the soft feminine flesh of her body pressed against him, warm and squishy and incredibly appealing but also comforting in a weird sense he couldn't place.

"Your heart's beating so fast." She breathed, awed, against the skin of his neck, hot and electrifying.

Kakashi swallowed against his now tight throat. "Is it?"

"Hmm." She trembled slightly. "I can feel it." Her palm flitted shakily over his chest and stopped in the middle, right over his heart. "It feels nice."

Maybe the gods were out to get him, maybe he was just crazy, but he was certain his heart skipped a beat beneath her palm. And he was certain she felt it.

* * *

 **Whoa, this took some time huh? I apologise but I'm doing summer classes so I have much less time. I'll aim to update every 2-3 weeks from now on. I hope you like the fluff in this chapter! Review and let me know which part you liked most and where you think this is headed.**

 **Songs:**

 **1) Hoobastank - The Reason**

 **2) X Ambassadors - Unsteady**

 **If you haven't voted for which person you want to end up with Naruto, head to my blog (bouncyirwin) and vote, I'll reblog the link so you could find it easily!**

 **Thank you for the sweet reviews ya'll have been giving me, I adore it.**

 **Until next timeeee x**

 **-Rama**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Unravelled**

Sakura slept peacefully in Kakashi's arms, soft breath tickling his neck and hands grasping loosely at his shirt, her leg thrown over his calf. That's how Naruto and Sasuke found them when they retreated from scouting the hotel and investigating the foreign chakra signature in the storage room.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and Naruto snorted into his palm. "Why aren't you two comfortable!"

Kakashi could do nothing more than glare at them from his position on the bed. He was immensely glad the rosette had fallen into a deep sleep, especially after she kept drifting in and out of consciousness **,** and he wasn't about to disturb her even if Naruto was being another brand of annoying today. Instead, he whispered, "Did you guys find any leads?"

"Yes **,** " Sasuke confirmed and Kakashi's heart all but jumped to lodge in his throat. Oh, finally...

"Do tell." Kakashi encouraged the Uchiha, his head tilting in the direction of the corner of the bed in invitation. Sasuke didn't follow **,** but Naruto plopped himself onto the soft mattress and sighed long and deep, in a way that made Kakashi quite anxious.

He watched the blond fidget with the bindings on his prosthetic arm for a few seconds before he received an answer in the form of: "I couldn't sense where her chakra led even when I went into sage mode."

Kakashi froze. "That's impossible."

Naruto nodded seriously, eyes fixed on the ceiling **.** "I mean there's bits and pieces scattered here and there **,** but in a sporadic pattern. It leads back to two different places, however, here and the gym."

"And?" Kakashi pressed when the blond stopped talking.

"Whatever they did to her, I think it suppressed her chakra. I'm just thinking out loud here **,** but any and every living thing has chakra, and I doubt anything can completely suppress it. She would've died from the stress it would've caused on her internal organs." Naruto sucked in a weary breath **.** "There's a faint lingering chakra residue that could belong to her **,** but we were about two days late so the trail's gone cold."

"It also doesn't explain the fever **,** " Sasuke cut in, twirling a kunai in his hand. "My guess is we're dealing with pretty dangerous people."

For a few short moments, Kakashi felt personally targeted in this whole fiasco. _Why did it have to be Sakura they came after?_ An angry part of his mind growled, irritated, _I already lose enough sleep worrying..._

He cut that thought track short. For the past two hours, all thoughts of Sakura came with waves of confusion and terrifying answers. He couldn't think about her without his mind drifting to the weird emotions he was experiencing more and more frequently. It didn't help that her face was shoved in his throat, her lips pressed there like a white-hot iron on his skin.

Later... later he'd think. For now, he'd worry about the inevitable. "Someone's after Sakura," he confessed, his grip on her _didn't_ tighten, he was simply imagining things. "We suspect it has something to do with the Land of Stars and the new circulating drug that made shinobi... well, superhuman to say the least."

"Why don't we just capture this Toishi guy?" Naruto suggested in a snarl that communicated his impatience with the whole mission. "I'm pretty sure that'd cut everything shorter."

"First, I'm about ninety-eight percent sure Toishi's working with ninja. I know you can take them on," Kakashi added hurriedly when Naruto opened his mouth to retort, "but this drug we're talking about it's... it makes people inhuman. I've fought one, and if it wasn't for Sakura I'd be dead."

"I'm sure we could handle them," Sasuke insisted in his usual confident tone, his shoulders squaring determinedly, but Kakashi adamantly shook his head again.

"Like I said, I know you can. But remember we're not talking about one enemy here. There's a whole organisation behind this. Taking Toishi out of the picture won't make Sakura any safer **,** " Kakashi explained, a sigh threatening to burst through his lips as he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to suppress the upcoming headache. "They're after her and if we don't bring the whole group down it's pointless. Taking out Toishi, who is our only possible lead for now, would send us back to square one."

He watched reluctant understanding dawn on their faces and added, "We're not even sure if it's Toishi, somebody could be framing him. What I know is we're being watched. And the person who attacked Sakura won't take long before they try again. You need to make yourselves inconspicuous, lest we scare them away."

Both Naruto and Sasuke were forced to nod their acceptance, and while one seemed nonchalant, the other was visibly agitated.

Kakashi gave in to the urge to sigh and let out a soft and rather miserable breath **.** "As much as I hate this, I need Sakura to lure them in. Once she's better of course, I want her to be able to defend herself so for now I'll watch her." He added the last part out loud because for a split second Naruto looked like he might jump him. Of course he'd never let Sakura out of his sight in her condition **.** Was the blond out of his mind to even begin to suggest he'd commit something so outrageous? The poor girl could barely undress herself without being at risk of falling down and giving herself a worse concussion.

"Go," he finally told them, suddenly feeling slightly uncomfortable with the way Sasuke was eyeing his arms around Sakura. He wasn't an affectionate person and they all knew it. It must be weird to everyone else to see him go from being a stiff reclusive man to cuddling a person. Oh, the things he'd done for this girl... he forced himself to focus back on the boys to distract himself, "Are you... undercover as well?"

"Well, we're supposed to be if we remain." Naruto shrugged and then, to Kakashi's amazement, a bright blush dusted the Uchiha's cheeks. It became apparent when Naruto carried on with his explanation. "We'll pose as a married couple **,** too **,** but we're not supposed to interact with you guys."

Kakashi was torn between gaping and laughing. Oh, he'd kill to see that. The Uchiha was squirming in his place already and it was utterly hilarious **,** but Kakashi held onto his amusement, locking it down and away for another time when his hands were unoccupied and he could defend himself when both guys inevitably attacked him for even suggesting they were together like that. Instead, he chewed his lip to hold his laughter and said, "Maah... have fun."

Well, it was too late when he realised what his words could sound like and Sasuke bristled, flushing **.** "Shut up, Kakashi."

"Ah ah," Kakashi said, waving a disapproving finger at him, a glint in his eyes. "It's captain for you."

Naruto, who also had a faint blush, was laughing at Sasuke's misery, unbothered with Kakashi's teasing. He grabbed the Uchiha's elbow as he stood and began to steer him away **.** "C'mon bastard, let's go before we wake Sakura-chan up."

Sasuke grunted, following willingly behind the blond. The door clicked and then they were gone and Kakashi was once again alone with his thoughts and the delicate body in his hold. Well, it could've been worse... right?

Sakura's breath suddenly caught against his neck and she squirmed, her breath accelerating. She let out a small terrified sound, her lips parting in a gasp. Kakashi froze, looking down at her to confirm she was sleeping. Indeed, she was. She must be having a nightmare.

"Kakashi," she breathed, in that same shell-shocked tone he'd heard when she saved him on the forest ground, what felt like a lifetime ago. "No... no, no, no..."

Kakashi seized breathing altogether. Was she... dreaming of him? His chest tightened with that same unnamed emotion as earlier, his heart rate going up a notch.

She squirmed again, limbs twitching, breath accelerating and heartbeat going wild in what he could only assume was fear **,** and he wondered what she could possibly be dreaming about that included him and caused her so much terror. Was he hurt?

He couldn't stand to watch her face twist up or listen to her incoherent pleas much longer. He gently shook her shoulder, trying to wake her up without startling her **.** "Sakura, wake up **.** " He waited a beat before shaking her again, more forcefully this time but still with the same gentle patience **.** "Sakura _._ " Another shake and her breath caught loudly as she sprung upright, her body twisting so that she lifted on her knees, straddling Kakashi in the process. Her glassy eyes snapped wide open, more alert than he had seen the whole day.

She stopped breathing for the whole of seven seconds, looking like a deer caught in the headlights for the whole of another moment before her face scrunched up again and her eyes grew glassier. He watched in horror as her lips shook and her teeth sank into them to prevent the surely coming sob.

"I-I'm sorry," he stuttered, suddenly anxious, hating the sight of her struggling so hard to hold herself together in front of him. "I didn't mean to startle you **.** " He added quickly, reaching to awkwardly pat her shoulder as he watched her quiver like a leaf in the wind in his lap **.** "You were... I _think_ you were having a nightmare."

She took a steadying breath through her nose, held it for a moment and let it out through her mouth before she croaked, "I-I'm okay. It's okay... I think..."

Perhaps she was okay, it was just a nightmare after all and surely she could handle that **,** but Kakashi was now faced with another dilemma: he was curious. He wanted to ask what happened in her dream **,** but he feared he might embarrass her **,** or worse, cause her more pain.

He looked at her still flushed cheeks and her pools of deep forest green eyes watching him unsurely, as if she expected him to ask her what happened. His breath hitched unexpectedly as he was caught off guard by the sight of her. She shouldn't have looked beautiful, especially with the way her hair was mussed up and her skin was coated with a thin layer of sweat, eyes unfocused and slightly smudged with mascara. Kakashi cursed in his head; could things get any more confusing?

Clamping down on his confusing feelings, he reached and quickly wiped away at a stray tear caught by the edge of her eye. "I'm sorry," he apologised again, sincerely, and then asked hesitantly, "What... happened?"

She looked away and stared at the adjacent wall, lips pursed together. "They were hurting someone dear to me."

Did that make him the dear someone? His heart banged briskly against his rib cage **.** "Someone dear?"

She sighed and shook her head, moving to get off him. "Yeah."

She settled in the space next to him on the bed and he watched her turn away and wipe at her eyes before facing towards him again. She cleared her throat, wringing her hands together and then she raised one of her them curiously and focused on it for a moment before it glowed a vivid blue. She cursed softly, her hand trembling badly as she tried to force more chakra into it.

Kakashi reached to stop her, wrapping a hand around her wrist and lowering it **.** "Don't," he cautioned, "you need to rest."

She pouted and then started as if she remembered something. She turned to look at him with wide eyes **.** "Can you get me my travel bag?"

He paused at the wild change of topic **,** but nodded and moved to the closet where it lay anyway. When he gave it to her, she proceeded to open and turn it upside down, emptying its content on the sheets. He studied the various objects with interest **:** a hair brush, a pink tube of what he assumed was lip gloss, folded pieces of paper, scrolls, ink, explosive tags and finally, a small grey box.

Her deceptively delicate-looking hand reached for the box and soon he discovered it to be filled with multi-coloured pills. "Medicine?" he asked curiously.

"Something like that," she muttered, lost in thought. Next, she grabbed a scroll wrapped with a green ribbon and unrolled it, summoning a mortar and a pestle.

He watched with interest as she proceeded to select a white pill, a pink pill **,** and a green one then put them all in the mortar where she began crushing the pills. Finally, she unscrewed what looked like a plastic pill and filled it with the powder.

"Water, please?" she requested eyeing the red and blue pill between her fingers with a hopeful expression.

He complied, returning with a water bottle **.** "What is it?"

She threw the pill in her mouth and downed it with water, a trickle seeping down the corner of her mouth before she answered **.** "For my fever," she explained, wiping at her moistened lips. He was momentarily distracted by the sight of them glistening and quickly looked away.

"Maah, that's good," he said moving to get off the bed, and in turn away from his surprising feelings.

She caught the hem of his shirt and tugged him back, much to his surprise **.** "Where are you going?"

He bit his lip. "Just over there," he said quietly, pointing at the armchair.

She arched an eyebrow at him. "What for? Stay here."

Kakashi suddenly missed the young, shy Sakura. This version was straight forward and never afraid; a confident young woman with a constant fire blazing in her eyes, always working to overcome her weakness and to achieve her goals. Embarrassedly, he found her breathtaking.

He was so, so screwed, he realised as he warily settled back next to her and watched her nuzzle his side with an expression just short of awe. _When_ was Sakura so comfortable around him, anyway? "I'm sorry for using you as my personal heating bag," she muttered in embarrassment.

Ah, he wasn't quite sure she should be apologising for that. He did feel uneasy when close to other human beings but even he couldn't deny the pleasantness of her feminine curves moulded to his side.

Okay, maybe the gods weren't done punishing him yet. Like really? Developing a crush on his student? What's next?

 _'_ _Once student'_ the traitorous part of his brain reminded sagely.

 _Shut up!_ He all but snapped at himself. He was being unreasonably… messed up. Sakura was all warmth and gentle smiles and caring touches. He had no business liking her at all, especially that way. Someone as damaged as him would surely ruin her.

 _Why the fuck are you even entertaining that thought?! Backtrack, Hatake!_

Screwed, definitely _._ Maybe in the head. Absolutely in the head. Even so, he thought he could use a concussion himself at this point, too. Anything to distract him off his absurd thought track.

"I think it's working **.** " Sakura broke the silence, voice holding a note of awe. "I can almost think without feeling as if I'm scorching my eye sockets."

"Ow." He commented offhandedly and relished in her amused giggle.

"Y'know, you make a good cuddle buddy." She hummed thoughtfully when another bout of silence stretched between them. "You're kinda soft."

"I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult. I worked very hard on these pectorals, you know." He bantered, if only to distract him from the ridiculous fluttering in his stomach.

She turned wide emerald eyes at him **.** "Oh! That's not how I meant it, your pectorals are great **,** " she assured poking his chest with her index. "Exquisite. Can definitely see how hard you worked on these."

"Sarcasm or genuine?"

"Genuine dummy." She giggled and he wondered if she was still delirious from her fever.

She frowned a little when her fingers touched his collarbones as she rightened her position. "You're hot."

His mouth quirked up **.** "Why, thank you, Sakura-chan. I try."

She smacked him without any real heat, her lips twitching up **,** too. "I'm referring to your skin. Do you have a fever **,** too? Don't tell me I got you sick."

He waved her off and leaned against the pillow cushioned behind his back, getting comfortable **.** "No, no. Don't worry, I'm always like this."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Really? How come I've never noticed this?"

"It's a family trait," he admitted, pressing a palm to his neck where he could acutely feel the blood pumping through his veins. "We have higher body temperatures."

Sakura bolted up to a sitting position, emerald eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Oh? Why is that?"

He smiled, thoughtlessly brushing her hair out of her eyes. "Curious one aren't you?" He hummed thoughtfully, wondering how to explain it best. "My clan always... associated with dogs. We worked best together due to our... well, similarities. We have developed olfactory senses, elongated canines, and higher metabolism rates —which is why we have higher body temperatures. Does that answer your question?"

She smiled, biting her lip. "You have elongated canines?"

He had to bite back a laugh at her expression. "Just slightly."

"Like Kiba's?" She pressed, eyes alight with excitement.

"More or less," he agreed with a chuckle.

She shut her eyes tightly and made a contemplative sound, her eyebrows tugging together. She pouted, "I can _almost_ imagine it, but not exactly."

A chuckle burst through his lips and he sighed. Everyone always wanted to see under his mask. He wondered if she'd be disappointed when she saw. He had a very ordinary face if you asked him—

His trail of thought abruptly slammed on the brakes. Wait, _when? Not if?_ He didn't realise that subconsciously, he'd planned to one day show her his face. An uncomfortable feeling twisted his stomach. No, that wouldn't do. He needed to stop imagining they'd always be this way: bantering, cuddling, and joking around.

One day, this bubbly girl will find herself someone who deserves her, and they'd go out on a lot of dates, and be all cutesy in public because she deserved a man who would be open and unashamed in his affections. And then one day, they'd get married, and they'd have many children, ones with her eyes and bright smiles and— he cut that thought track too, an even more unpleasant feeling settling in his gut.

Kakashi hadn't even realised how deep his own feelings ran until this second. Maybe it wasn't just a crush. That mental image of her with another man, starting a family, moving away from him... it tore at him in a way he hadn't expected. It wasn't jealousy, not exactly. It was something deeper, rawer. It _hurt._

Kakashi really liked her, and in ways he wasn't entirely comfortable admitting.

The frightening truth was, in a way, he could see himself falling in love with her if he let himself. And he wasn't sure how to deal with that piece of discovery.

* * *

 **The lovely Skittledoodles drew the bathroom scene from last chapter. You could go onto my blog (bouncyirwin) and search the tag 'underneath the underneath' if you wish to see it! Fanart is always very appreciated (yes I'm asking you to spam me, please!)**

 **Song:**

 **1) Dangerously - Charlie Puth**

 **2) Please Don't Go - Mike Posner**

 **I promise next chapter will be longer, with some action. We're almost halfway through.**

 **Beta'd by Denilmo. Until next time!**

 **\- Rama x**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Born To Drown**

"Yamanaka-san?"

A knock resounded in Ino's office, interrupting her thoughts. She looked up from her paperwork, a weary sigh at the tip of her lips. "Come in."

The door opened to reveal Kotetsu, who turned sheepish when she smiled tiredly at him. "Um, Hokage-sama wants you in her office at two."

"Right, of course." Ino yawned, shuffling her papers into a stack. "Is that all?"

He hesitated, his smile turning unsure. "Uh... Genma said to meet him at Ichiraku...? Are you guys dating?"

Ino paused, looking up at him warily before she resumed her work. "So what if we are?"

Kotetsu shuffled nervously. "I mean... it's just unexpected."

"Is it now?" The corner of her mouth quirked up and she ran her hand absently through her hair, mussing it as she stood up to grab her coat.

Kotetsu slumped a little. "Well, okay. Maybe not. You eye-rape each other in the hallways every other day. Just the age difference thing is a little weird."

Ino poked his cheek, ignoring his previous comment. "Age difference is lame." She pressed a kiss to the same cheek as she exited. "I'll see you."

Ino thought she heard him mutter "Lucky dog," under his breath but she couldn't be entirely sure.

It was easy to spot Genma's familiar back when she arrived at Ichiraku. He had a distinct appearance, what with the way he wore his forehead protector and the senbon he was constantly chewing. She poked his side in greeting. Genma's head turned in her direction and he grinned at the sight of her. "Yo."

"Hey," she replied, settling in the stool in front of him. "Order something yet?"

"No, I was waiting for you." His smile turned sheepish as he waved Ayame over. "Two miso ramen please."

Ayame nodded and called their order, disappearing behind the kitchen's closed door. Genma turned back to Ino, regarding her before saying, "I think Raido's onto me."

Ino snorted. "Took him long enough."

"He wants to meet you," Genma admitted with an awkward neck rub. "If you want to, of course."

Ino shrugged. "Sure. He's like, your best friend, right?"

"More or less," he agreed, relaxing back in his chair and into his familiar smirk.

"I honestly thought it was Kakashi-sensei," Ino admitted with a little shrug, watching surprise flash in Genma's brown eyes. She frowned. "Is he not?"

One of Genma's eyebrows arched up, almost inquiringly. "Kakashi? Why do you think so?"

"You two seem close. I've seen you hanging around a lot," Ino elaborated just as Ayama came back with their steaming bowls.

Genma split his chopsticks and ate a mouthful before answering. "I think..." He made a contemplative sound at the back of his throat and paused again, chopsticks at the tip of his mouth, "Well, I guess we are close. Him being my cousin and all—"

"He's your cousin?!" Ino, who was in the process of swallowing, choked on her ramen and began to cough violently, praying to god noodles didn't come shooting out of her nose.

Genma reached over and patted her back worriedly. "Jeez woman, would you swallow before you talk?"

Ino gulped down a mouthful of water, cheeks flushed. "C-cousin?" she croaked again, bewildered.

Genma sighed but his mouth twitched back into a smile. "Quite strange huh? Everyone seems to have the same reaction."

"Well, it's quite the shock," she conceded, comparing the two in her head. "You guys look nothing alike."

"Well, he takes more after his father than he does his mother," Genma agreed, taking another mouthful of noodles, half chewing half talking. "And I take more after my dad, too."

"So your mothers are sisters?" she asked, slightly awed. Not many knew much about Kakashi. It astounded her that he had relatives. She never thought he had family outside of the Hatake clan, who were all dead as far as she knew.

"Hmm," Genma confirmed, "Aunt Chihiro used to look after me when I was a kid. It's really unfortunate what happened to her."

Ino hesitated before taking the plunge, "What happened to her?"

"She got sick— blood cancer." Genma sighed. "Kakashi was only four, he wouldn't have understood, so she couldn't tell him she was dying."

Ino set her chopsticks down, suddenly feeling sick. "Oh... that's so sad."

Genma gave a grunt of agreement and sat back. "Damn. Sorry, ruined the mood. This is supposed to be a mini date."

Ino gave him a reassuring smile. "It's my fault for being nosy. It's fine. I have to meet the Hokage in ten minutes anyway. Are you still coming tonight?"

A mischievous glint entered his gaze and he arched a cocky eyebrow. "That depends on how you perform."

Ino flushed, her mouth falling open. She reached over lighting fast and smacked him across the back of his head. "Genma!" she hissed, scandalised, but then she burst into a fit of giggles. "My god, you're a horrible human being."

Genma raised both hands, palms facing up as if to say he was helpless to change that. "Oops? You should come over though. It's always me coming over to yours. My turn."

His blonde companion snorted again. "What an idiot. Fine. I'll see you tonight okay? I'm going to go now before you say anything else."

"Tsk, rude," Genma complained, but he was still smiling so Ino got up and leaned over the table to press a small kiss to the corner of his mouth, letting her lips linger there just slightly. When she pulled back he was smiling at her, eyes half-lidded and filled with a warmth that made her stomach flutter with butterflies.

"See ya!" She threw over her shoulder as she hurried out of Ichiraku, leaving behind a half full bowl of ramen. Genma sighed in resignation and pulled it closer to finish her portion.

* * *

"Hokage-sama," Ino greeted upon entering Tsunade's office. Tsunade was hunched over paperwork, a frown tugging on her brows, looking absolutely exhausted.

"Ino." Tsunade acknowledged, looking up, dark circles evident beneath her eyes. "I have a mission for you."

Ino stepped forward to stand in front of Tsunade's desk, where a map lay open. Tsunade pointed with a manicured finger at the borders of Sound. "I need you to investigate one of Orochimaru's abandoned hideouts. There have been suspicious activities buzzing around this place and I don't like it."

Ino nodded. "Anything else?"

"I want you to specifically search for any papers regarding drug development. I'm afraid this ties too closely to Sakura's and Kakashi's mission." Tsunade sighed and chewed her lip in agitation. "Take someone with you. And be careful, for all we know, that place is filled with traps and I want you back by the evening."

Ino bowed her head. "Of course. I'll have Genma accompany me."

Suspicious marigold eyes instantly regarded her and Ino felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand. She expected Tsunade to say something but then the blonde woman just smirked and sent her off.

Mystified, Ino shunshined out of the room.

* * *

The man walking behind her let out a quiet string of irritated curses as the mud squelching beneath his soles seeped into his sandals and found home between his toes. "Why'd you say we needed to do this again?" He grumbled, hurrying to catch up with her.

"Hokage's order," Ino quipped and laughed when he groaned. "It'll be quick, we just need to go through his abandoned research."

"Really? Does that sound quick to you?" Genma huffed, finally matching her pace. "That sounds like it'll take days."

"Well, we only have a few hours. Tsunade-sama said to report back by the evening." Ino shrugged and watched Genma nearly trip forward. She suppressed a giggle, quickly adding on when he shot her a dirty look. "It seems this has to do with Sakura's mission."

"Yes, but the obvious difference is Sakura's playing fake couple with Konoha's hottest bachelor in a five-star hotel and I'm wading through shit." Genma groused under his breath.

"Ew, Genma, he's your cousin," Ino teased and took pleasure in the way his jaw dropped open in horror.

"Oh my god, woman," Genma cried, nearly falling back, "Don't— literally, don't."

Ino dissolved into a fit of giggles but when she calmed down she issued, "man, you're hopeless. Come on, quit whining. Right now I'm your team captain, not your sexy, gorgeous girlfriend. Zip it."

"Hai, hai," The brunet waved her off with a sigh and ploughed on.

* * *

Orochimaru's hideout came in the form of wreckage concealed within thick layers of Genjutsu. Once in, however, the scenery changed from aged wood and hip-high grass blades to sophisticated, vast corridors and heavy metal doors.

Ino had been here before— just once, back when they first discovered the hideout and she was a sixteen year old. She more or less knew her way around it, so she led Genma to the lab where she imaged drug charts may lay alongside god-knows what other horrific stuff Orochimaru had holed up in this place.

The building still reeked of death and horror even when the surfaces of the desks were so clean they practically shined, reflecting her image back at her to see. But perhaps that's what made her slightly nauseous. The strong lingering scent of antiseptic mixed with chlorine clung to every corner and every tool, and familiar surgical instruments were placed perfectly along the trays as if lined with a ruler.

Genma rubbed uncomfortably at his nose. "Is it just me or does it feel a bit... dead in here?"

Ino grimaced and nodded, moving towards the folder cabinets. "At least he labels his work—"The blonde interrogator was interrupted by the kunai that shot down from the ceiling when she took a step towards the shelves lining the walls. In a flash, a kunai appeared in her hand, and with reflexes only a war veteran possessed, she countered the flying projectile.

"Fall back," she hissed at her partner as she jumped away and crouched down. "There's no way the only trap he has set is a poisonous kunai."

"Good point," Genma said, his neck craning up to survey the ceiling. He took a slight pause before saying, "Hey— move away for a sec."

Ino complied, watching curiously as the brown-haired man spit the senbon between his teeth at a spot on the ceiling. Something soft squeaked, so quietly if Ino had breathed that second she wouldn't have heard it.

Multiple objects came dashing their way and Genma let out a soft curse, six kunai appearing in his hands, ready to counter.

Without a moment's hesitation, Ino's hands came together in a familiar series of seals— Tiger, Hare, Boar, Dog— she slammed her hands down on the sleek ground and a massive wall of earth came shooting up to conceal her and Genma.

The brown-haired man's sigh of relief caught in his throat as the poisonous projectiles began to melt their way through the earth.

"Fall back!" Ino cried, forming the same seals again and creating another thicker wall. She followed it along with a series of complicated, long seals. The air sizzled with the powerful gathering of chakra and a piercing shriek echoed as her water dragon came to life just in time to collide with the still hurtling ninja tools.

Water splashed everywhere and Ino had to channel chakra to her feet as to not slip when she moved to manually dismantle the projectiles that managed to escape her dragon.

Both her and Genma stood, highly alert as they waited for something else to happen— anything at all to show that there was another trap waiting to be figured.

Nothing of that sort happened and Ino frowned thoughtfully. "Wouldn't Orochimaru have a more challenging trap to protect his research?"

Genma nodded from his position, eyes surveying their surroundings. "Yeah but— look, whoever was here before us weren't as discreet as they thought." The brown haired man pointed under one of the lab tables where specks of blood were left to dry over to a rusty brown colour.

"You think these are their traps?" The blond looked up at the shelves again, now wondering if something else would attack her when she approached it again.

"Probably." Genma sighed and turned to aim one last kunai straight at the files.

A rough tearing sound echoed and one of the shelves, along with its contents, came skidding down on the ground in a mess of dust and loose papers.

"That should make things easier." Genma quipped and joined her beside the endless shelves of paperwork and detailed notes. And so they started at the Drugs Section and thus began their tedious search.

It was only three hours later that Genma suddenly looked up and inquired, "You said they made ninja super humanly strong?"

"Something like that." The blond confirmed from her crouched position on the ground. Some time into the second hour of their search her legs started cramping from standing still for too long.

Genma thrust a file her way. "It says here he was developing some kind of drug to increase adrenaline levels enough to make someone thrice as strong and even faster. Sounds a little like Sasuke's old cursed seal if you ask me. Except this is a drug that could probably be sold."

Ino's eyebrows shot up as she skimmed through paragraph after the next of detailed medical text. Strengthen cardiac muscle... Higher heart rate... More blood to muscles... Fight or flee response maximised... take two hours, thirty seconds before performing a body switch… Ino's jaw dropped and she gasped, "Hey! This is the thing he used to perform the body transfer so his soul isn't lost."

Genma scrambled to her side to read over her shoulder. "What'd you think the drug looks like? Maybe if we bring Sakura samples she'll have a better idea of what this is."

"Maybe," Ino agreed and got up to search through the drawers and lockers, taking extra care to not be surprised by a hidden trap.

Genma carried on talking, brows furrowing. "What I don't get is, how does this link to Sakura's mission?"

Ino froze. Suddenly, everything made sense to her and she leaned back against one of the tables, feeling a little numb. "Whoever we're after is probably further developing this drug to have even wilder effects. But that's really dangerous —I don't need to be Tsunade-sama to know this wears away on the body, and the cardiac muscle with frequent over-exaggerated use could result in quadriplegia and eventually death."

Silence filled the air for the whole of six seconds before Genma finally asked the important question. "What's Sakura's play in all this?"

Ino slumped. "I suppose her regeneration techniques. It's not a far fetch that they're trying to eliminate the side effect of the drug. If your body heals naturally and is constantly repairing itself, wouldn't that essentially eliminate the threat of death?"

"But... isn't Sakura's technique chakra control?" The brown-haired man looked thoroughly confused, his hold slackening on the files. They went skidding down his knees.

The blonde shrugged, unsure. "I'm speculating here, but what if they just want to study her technique to get a better understanding of how the body operates? Or worse, what if they do to her what's been done to Shodaime-sama's cells? What if theirs a certain formula in her genes that could be replicated to heighten recovery rate?"

Genma ran a hand down his face, letting out a weary sigh. "Okay," he said and sucked in a steadying breath. "Okay. At least now we have a starting point or something. I'm tired of running into walls."

Ino heaved a sigh and straightened to her full height. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right."

* * *

Tsunade hadn't even asked them to explain their findings, only demanding the files and drugs and dismissing them immediately. Ino suspected she needed to mull over it in the privacy of her office and maybe break a few things so she wisely lead Genma out.

The man yawned and undid his bandanna, raking his fingers through his soft brunet strands. The sight was just a little breathtaking, especially when his lips parted and he spoke in a lazy drawl. "So... you coming over?"

Ino regarded his slightly hunched over figure and the dark circles underneath his eyes worriedly— she knew he hadn't been getting any decent sleep and that Tsunade was running him raw but she missed him. Longing and selfishness warred together inside her head for long seconds and at the end, she said, "I don't know. You look like you could use some sleep."

The corner of his mouth quirked up in one of his famous smirks. "I could use some Genma and Ino time, too."

She rolled her eyes at him, but a small knot formed in her stomach, and she found herself smiling and shaking her head ruefully. "Are you ever thinking of anything that isn't sex?"

He pouted. "I'm offended— I think about my mission reports, too."

"Yes, and how late they always are because you're always putting them off. I would think of that too." Ino poked his side letting him know she saw through his lie and turned in the direction of his house, having decided to keep her dork of a boyfriend some company. "Come on, let's go."

He grinned and jogged after her. They took the rooftops to his house that was located at the heart of the city and when they arrived, Ino rolled her eyes at Genma because he slipped in through the window. She ignored him when he motioned for her to join him and rounded the house instead, entering through the door.

She found Genma pouting at her and remarked as she pointed at the door, "This is here for a reason you know."

Genma shrugged, making for the bathroom. "Meh, real ninja take windows."

Ino's eyebrow ticked and she stalked after him. She arrived just as he shed his shirt and was momentarily distracted by the sight of his long, bare torso reflected in the mirror, marred by faint scars. "Are you implying I'm not a real ninja?"

Genma snorted and turned to face her in all his shirtless glory, just as her knee jerked up. "Please, I wouldn't dream of— ah, ah, don't! No kicking me in the balls, I need those— _you_ need those."

Ino brought her knee back down and slumped in defeat. "Dammit, you're right."

He grinned triumphantly, displaying a row of perfectly lined teeth, his senbon absent for once, and began shimmying out of his Jounin pants. "Care to join?"

"We won't get any showering done." She pointed, although he made quite the inviting sight stripping to his birthday suit.

"Meh, we're supposed to get dirty before getting clean." He winked conspiratorially and opened the glass door leading to his shower.

"You're insufferable," she grumbled with fake displeasure and got to undress herself. Deep brown eyes turned from the shiny white tiles of the shower to fix on her semi naked figure and she shot him a half-hearted glare. "Do you have to stare?"

His intense look shifted to a sheepish one, but he didn't bother looking away. "What can I say... you make it hard not to."

Ino refused— _refused-_ to blush, instead, she pushed past him and turned the shower on. Genma startled profoundly at the icy water that hit his back and yelped.

Ino couldn't help it, she dissolved into mirthful giggles, earning his glare. That was until something dangerous entered his gaze— she barely had time to register the coming attack but he had grabbed the shower head and aimed it straight at her face.

Ino squealed, turning her face away from him as she was assaulted by a barrage of freezing water. "Hey— Genma!— stop— _stop!_ "

It was him laughing now as she pulled her wet blonde strands out of her eyes. She glared at him now that he wasn't spraying her anymore but it quickly turned to a pout. She wondered how ridiculous she looked, long hair sticking to her face and neck. It didn't help that he looked the perfect picture of drop dead sexy, what with water droplets trailing down his contoured body.

He cooed, probably unaware of how utterly delicious the sight of him was, and moved to help her. "Don't you look like a wet kitten?"

She punched half-heartedly at his chest as his hands settled on either side of her head and his thumbs began stroking her cheeks. He was looking at her with that rare tender expression he got sometimes when he knew no one else but she was looking. It made her stomach twist with near violent butterflies.

The playful mood suddenly shifted to something heavier but equally as pleasant, if not more. Something almost intimate settled over the small space they shared; time slowed, the shower spray quietened and the temperature steadily rose regardless of the cold spray splashing at their feet. Ino was vividly aware of the loud beating of her heart in her ears, and she wondered if he could hear it too, or if his heart was racing as fast as hers.

It wasn't fair, she decided, when his touch slowly became scalding on her skin and she was yet again hyper aware of how naked the both of them were. How he could switch her moods around like he was shuffling a deck of cards, she failed to understand.

She decided it didn't matter for he leaned down and captured her mouth in a kiss that made her toes curl and her stomach clinch pleasantly.

A near electric tingling travelled all the way up her spine to the center of her head and settled there like a dull buzz. A sort of high that was much like the feeling of being tipsy. It intensified as he slanted his mouth over hers, kissing her deeply but without any real hurry like they had all the time in the world and he planned to savour every second of it.

Her belly tightened even further and she felt like her heart was trying to squeeze its way out of her almost painfully.

She pulled back for breath, her lungs screaming and her head light, like she was floating. His face was flushed like she was sure her own was, but he was smiling— not his familiar smirk where only the corner of his mouth twitched up sexily, no, this was his real smile, the one that said he was happy and content and it had a certain shine to it that inspired another swarm of violent butterflies in her gut.

"Shower?" he asked, like he hadn't just nearly dissolved her into a puddle at his feet. "I'll wash your hair," he offered, already reaching for the shampoo before she could reply, and then he was massaging her scalp and if possible, the buzzing in her body became a constant pleasant thrumming and if she didn't know any better, she would've thought she was drunk.

It occurred to her that this was why she loved him so much— this high he gave her with a simple touch and a small smile. Whether he was trying to give her pleasure or just keep her company, being around him made her happy.

She leaned to rest her forehead on his chest, ignoring his protest on the awkward position he now had to wash her hair at— it didn't matter, cleaning could wait, her conscious argued as she pressed a feverish kiss over his pectoral, her lips straying further down.

His fingers never left her hair.

* * *

Ino was in the process of swallowing her dinner when a booming knock rattled Genma's door and sent both of them into defense mode.

They had finished with their showering —and more interesting activities— not an hour ago and decided to have take out and relax on Genma's couch.

They briefly discussed what they came across in Orochimaru's hideout and what the situation was probably like for Kakashi and Sakura, only to now be interrupted rather rudely at dinner time.

Genma hurried to the door and Ino followed, wondering what was the likelihood of an enemy deciding to announce their presence before attacking. Another worrying thought presented itself as she pondered the possibility of a serious situation occurring.

All the scenarios in her head came to a screeching halt when the door opened to reveal a hunched over, panting Kakashi with a passed out Sakura in his hold. He had a wild look in his eyes like he had just managed to escape death within an inch and he could barely catch his breath.

He didn't even glance at her, nearly falling on Genma in his hurry to pass him the rosette.

"Kaka—" Genma began, bewildered and concerned as he scrambled to support the body of her best friend, but Kakashi interrupted him.

"No time!" The copy ninja seized his shoulders in a rough grip. "I have no time to explain. Take her. Keep her safe, no matter the cost! Keep. Her. Safe... please... I... I just really need you to keep her safe. For me, okay, Genma? Can I count on you?"

The look in his eyes was now desperate, one neither Ino nor Genma had ever seen before. One that made him look like a man on the verge of falling on his knees to beg for his life. It was such a startling sight Ino almost reached over to comfort him despite the worry that was driving her crazy now.

Genma nodded at Kakashi, who then turned tail and raced into the night, leaving both of them shell shocked and with more questions to answer.

Ino recovered first, moving to check on Sakura. The rosette was burning up, her breath laboured and her forehead glistening. Her body twitched and trembled every few seconds and her fingers moved blindly over Genma's chest like she couldn't see and was unaware of her surroundings.

"Sakura?" Ino said tentatively.

Unfocused emerald eyes searched frantically for her. "I-Ino, Ino— w-where's... Kakashi, Naruto— wh-where—" The rosette grabbed onto her arm rather weakly, her fingers shaking.

"Hey," Genma shushed, but his eyes were focused on something in the distance and his face twisted into a grim look. "Kakashi will be okay. Ino... take Sakura and get her to Tsunade."

"Huh?" Ino startled as she received Sakura from his hold. "Aren't you coming too…?"

But Genma was already forming hand signs. "No. I'll hold them back. Go. As fast as you can, no stops."

It was then Ino noticed the chakra of the approaching hostile figure and she fell back immediately, worried eyes fixing on Genma. "Will you be okay…?"

"Yes." He turned to face her just for a split second, long enough to send her one of his reassuring smiles. "Go."

Ino turned tail and fled.

* * *

 **Well folks, we're officially half way through UTU! This will probably be the only chapter I write from Ino's point of view but let me know if you guys liked it. Also GenIno yay, I love these two so much!**

 **Now onto some bad news... I probably won't be updating until mid-September. I'm leaving on vacation and won't have wifi. I also have exams these following two weeks. I promise to try and work out a chapter during my break but for now, let's leave it at a September update.**

 **And for the good news: you can either expect next chapter to be twice as long or for two chapters to be released within a week of each other!**

 **Songs:**

 **1) Suicide - James Arthur**

 **2) - Too Deep**

 **Beta'd by the beautiful Denilmo.**

 **I'll miss you all and until next time.**

 **-Rams.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: One Step Forward**

It hurt in a way he hadn't expected. Not in an all consuming, blinding way, but like a small stream of burning liquid trickling down his skin and making him flinch.

That was the sensation that spread through his chest when he came to the shocking realisation of his true feelings, and his initial thought was he needed to let her be— to stay away. But just the idea of taking a step away from her —of putting a distance between them— made that scalding sensation all the worse.

He understood it… but that was what scared the living daylights out of him. Sakura wasn't someone he could mess with because losing her would hurt even more than the current tightening in his lungs. She wasn't someone he could have— she just wasn't an option. And the worst of it was that he had no control over these emotions plaguing him. He hated himself for it already, hated that the moment he developed romantic feelings for someone it wasn't a person he could pursue. He really was going to die alone now.

 _Would you quit being pathetic?_ His conscious urged with a sneer. He could feel her eyes on him, studying him, dissecting him. She remained in her position, curled up in the space next to him, pink strands fanned out across the white pillow. A traitorous part of his brain marvelled at how beautiful she was relaxed beside him, of how she looked like she was made to be there next to him… he wondered if his mask was effectively concealing his inner turmoil.

The thought vanished when her voice, soft and quiet with her sluggishness, interrupted the calm quiet that surrounded them. "What are you thinking?" she murmured, eyes tracing his profile.

He stiffened slightly, unsure of how to respond. When his silence stretched for several second, her hand reached up and her thumb brushed the spot between his brows, smoothing the skin there. She was smiling. "You get this little frown when you're thinking too hard about something."

His forehead burned under her touch. He stared at her, sightly wide eyed. "I... do?"

She chuckled and turned to stretch. "Hmm... just like how your eyebrow twitches when you're amused."

He hated the way his heartbeat sped up a notch, despised it. "I didn't realise."

"Well, you see," she said, turning back to face him again, the blush in her cheeks now looking a little healthier than the feverish look she had worn for days now. "When you have only a small patch of skin to tell someone's emotions, you learn to read the small signs. Your eyes squint slightly when angry or irritated, your nose barely visibly scrunches when disgusted. I learned to read all of your face a while ago Kakashi, your mask can't stop me."

Well, as butterfly-inducing as the thought of her paying attention to the small signs of his person (and dammit he better find a word other than _butterflies_ ), it was equally unnerving. He didn't want her knowing how he felt. Or rather the sad truth was that he did, he really did, but he also wanted her to accept it - to return it - which was impossible. Not only was he a lot older, he was just way too damaged for her.

He sighed. All ninja were damaged, including Sakura herself even if she seemed happy most of the time, he knew it wasn't always the case. But he was a whole other brand of fucked up. He didn't want to drag her down with him.

Apparently she interpreted the small sound he made as a sign of irritation for she apologised. "I'm sorry, I bet you don't like it when people try to figure you out. I don't do it to spite you, I just..." she trailed off, suddenly seeming uncharacteristically embarrassed. "I want... I really want to know you. The real you. Not just the front you show to everyone."

He realised he stopped breathing for a moment and took a small gulp of air. Why the hell did she want to know him anyway? And would she _please_ stop blushing so prettily while looking at him those clear, trusting green eyes before he did something as equally appealing as it was stupid? "Ah... why do you figure it's a front?"

Her features hardened into a more serious look that was both worrying and incomprehensible. She didn't answer for a long time, eyes suddenly fixed on the ceiling and lips pursed in thought. "I guess... I guess I sometimes glimpse fragments of the person you are," she said, eyes distant, like she wasn't there but remembering something. "I don't understand it but... I see this version of you that you don't show people, that I'm not supposed to see but I do anyway. And I suspect that version is the real you."

His neck felt slightly damp. He was speechless, reduced to a clump of confusion and worry with strands of affection and heat mingled with that mess. The real him she wasn't supposed to see? He'd definitely heard of more worrying news but an inkling was beginning to form to what she may be talking about, and it made him both uncomfortable and slightly panicked.

A memory from a few days ago came back to him; her twisting and squirming in his hold as nightmares plagued her, claiming they were hurting her precious person while coincidentally having called his name… another of her trembling arms wrapped around him as she sobbed into his chest in the middle of the forest they camped in, as if she was going to lose him if she dared let go… and another of when he woke up right before she was kidnapped to the smell of her tears… there just was no way that she actually meant… that she was having… no, _impossible_.

Suddenly, her cheeks flushed pink and she looked elsewhere, breaking him away from his inner ramblings before he could give himself an anxiety attack. "S-sorry, that sounded weird, huh? Forget I said anything."

* * *

Sakura wanted to kick herself the moment the words were out of her mouth. She had to be insane to be sharing that with him. She had to be out of her mind. Her dreams never stopped and she doubted they ever would at this rate. The thing was, she never even considered telling Kakashi about them because no matter how close they were —no matter how much she felt like he was a part of her now— he wouldn't handle it well, she just knew it like she knew the sky was blue.

He was looking at her, perplexed, a touch of thinly concealed worry in his dark, dark gaze. She looked away again. He had been uncharacteristically quiet all day, not even bothering to read a book, just staring into space, and often, at her. She wondered if he was having a mid-life crisis or something similar.

He was quiet again now and she hesitantly looked up at him from beneath dark lashes, hating that she sent him back into his somber mood once again. His lips were pursed beneath the mask— that terribly, terribly intriguing face hidden beneath a plain cloth. How she wished she could see him without it just once. Her dreams allowed her to glimpse his young face a few times but it just wasn't the same.

And he was gorgeous, really. It was a shame he had his face hidden, even when he had convenient reasons. But maybe she should be glad, Sakura reasoned, people were falling over themselves in his presence _with_ the mask on already, she had no doubt it would be ten times worse were he to parade around Konoha without it.

She sighed and startled slightly because his sigh echoed hers. He finally turned to look at her, eyes guarded and for once, utterly blank and then slowly, asked a question she really hadn't seen coming. "Why have you never dated anyone, Sakura? Not even Sasuke? You're pretty young, what's stopping you? And don't give me that crap about insecure men, surely there's a decent member of the male species in Konoha."

Taken entirely aback by the wild change of topic, she stared at him with wide eyes, mouth hanging slightly open. He only continued to gaze curiously at her.

"Um," she stammered, moving to a sitting position in her unrest. "It's... it's really complicated."

"What's so complicated about it?" One of his elegant silver eyebrows arched up. How he made that one simple act attractive was beyond her.

She struggled again for the right words. "You see... I've always been in love with someone— namely Sasuke— although thinking back to it I don't suppose it was love. And you see... having taken a step back from all that, I'm just... trying to figure myself out. Who am I, what do I want, and all that stuff."

Kakashi gave a slow, understanding nod. "So you're just finding yourself?"

Sakura gave a quick nod, feeling her cheeks heat up. "Mostly. And..." she paused for a second before shyly admitting, "I suppose I'm looking for that person that'll really make me feel alive. He might not exist, but a girl can hope." She chuckled nervously.

 _And..._ Sakura internally added... _you plague my dreams day and night and invade my every thought. How can I be with someone when all I can think of is you?_

Well, if that didn't make her sound like a hopeless romantic she didn't know what would! But he simply nodded and turned back to staring at the wall, leaving her to dwell on her most recent discovery.

Was it true? Was she being honest with herself when it came to the true reasons why she wasn't dating anyone? No, she wasn't and she _knew_ that, knew it like she knew she'd die a ninja fighting to protect her home. Because she just knew that deep down, where she was never afraid to admit her emotions to herself, where the old Sakura who shouted her feelings from the rooftops was buried under all the loss and hurt. The true reason behind her lack of interest in males lately was due to one simple reason: she was already interested in one.

And not just anyone. But the very man sharing this bed with her right now. Because Sakura _knew,_ she _understood_ her feelings; she _was_ attracted to Kakashi, she couldn't deny it. She just didn't want to admit it either. More so than she already had, anyway.

That thought track was violently discarded in favour of focusing on her nagging ninja senses that were prickling uncomfortably, pulling her attention to the fact that there was another ninja in the vicinity, one that wasn't doing a great job concealing their chakra solely because of the unbelievable amount they possessed. It was easy to sense it when she pinpointed them; they were like a bottomless pit, and before her brain had time to catch up, her body was already kickstarting, instincts taking over and forcefully directing her.

She had just enough time to flip Kakashi off the bed, landing on top of him in the process before three kunai hit the spot he previously occupied. His hands shot out to protectively hold onto her hips and their eyes met for a short moment, understanding passing between them. They were back.

Sakura didn't stop to think, reflexes she'd masterfully honed since the fourth ninja war directing her like her lungs knew how to breathe and she was rolling off her partner a second later, hand finding her backpack and snatching it close. She avoided another barrage of kunai, her body launching to the space behind the armchair— it bought her enough time to unroll a blue scroll and summon her weapon's holster.

A loud crash followed and she looked up to find that one of the three enemies —the one who was like a bottomless pit of chakra— threw the coffee table at Kakashi, who ducked the attack but inevitably caused the object to go flying through the glass door leading to the balcony and down below.

Startled screams and yells echoed from the restaurant beneath them and Sakura knew she had to take the fight somewhere else before civilians were hurt. Her eyes sought out her companion and she froze, her body temperature falling several degrees when she made out the outline of a chakra web developing around him, shimmering blue and red like a vast galaxy. A familiar nagging sensation washed over her and the answer came to her unbidden; it was the heat jutsu that had knocked her down.

Her body yet again reacted before she gave the order, and she was pushing Kakashi away, knowing he was unaware of the danger surrounding him. She understood now, instinctively, that their enemy's jutsu was invisible just to the victim. She tasted it in the air where he stood, a strange ash-like, slightly metallic flavour on her tongue that made her want to gag.

Sakura had just enough time to come to a very important conclusion: that their enemy was a goddamn idiot for using the same jutsu on the same person twice —because she _will_ figure him out, because she _will_ make him pay— before a familiar burning sensation slammed into her full force, effectively knocking her off her feet and sending her and Kakashi crashing to the opposing wall with enough force it cracked the concrete. And then, with the picture of Kakashi's wide worried eyes branded in her memory as the last thing she saw, her consciousness faded.

* * *

Kakashi had half a mind to grab the rosette and move away before they were on him again, a sea of pointy weapons at his tail and _fuck,_ he was outnumbered _and_ burdened with the passed out body of his _stupid, stupid, stupid_ partner who dared take the hit for him. With a blazing rush of adrenaline assaulting him as he barely ducked a storm of water bullets by jumping off the balcony, he came to the terrifying realisation that if he was caught it was _game over_ for both of them.

The glass from the balcony window crunched beneath his feet before he rolled, sharp shards tore at his clothes, at his flesh, splattering the glass with his blood but he paid it no mind because right now, only one thing mattered: getting Sakura to safety and holding these bastards back long enough for Naruto and Sasuke to find them.

 _Shit, where are they?_ He couldn't fight while carrying Sakura and he couldn't exactly escape without defending himself. The silver-haired man realised he was thoroughly stuck.

He narrowly missed a kunai to the back and he was struck with another realisation as the taunting laughter and insulting jabs of his enemies reached him; they were playing with him, _letting_ him think he could escape.

As soon as the thought registered in his mind something scalding, and so excruciating it made him gasp, hit him full force in his left shoulder and he stumbled mid-run, violently steering off course and promptly crashing his other shoulder into a streetlight.

His arms tingled, weakened from the blows he'd taken and he could feel his grip begin to fail "No—!" But the rosette was already slipping out of his hold, body rolling over onto the pavement, hair trailing over mud spots on the ground and shoulder digging in the piled rocks on the corner of the under-construction street.

Kakashi barely managed to steer away from another kunai, but he regretted the action as soon as he committed it for it sliced her shoulder open and embedded in the rosette's shirt, pinning her to the ground at the same time. The deep gash began sprouting blood immediately like a river, drenching the charcoal bricks beneath her and trickling down her pale skin.

He didn't have much time to feel sick at the sight of his precious person so hurt —so _helpless_ — because they were on him again, their attacks more vicious now that he no longer held their target hostage.

Kakashi stumbled a few times, his foot burning like a live-wire from an attack that hit its target, but he kept on going, kept on trying to round back to where Sakura was, but they weren't letting him. Two of them aimed continuous rapid-fire attacks at his exposed back while the third secured Sakura in his hold and started racing away.

 _Oh, hell no you didn't—!_ He brought his hands together in a familiar seal, calling upon the Demonic Hell Viewing genjutsu technique. He saw the immediate second it took effect, and although it only bought him scarce breathing space, it was all he needed to vault over his chasers, up an electricity pole and across one of the villas in the resort, landing next to his target, who nearly crashed into him.

But Kakashi wasn't done, his hands coming together in another seal he had all but forgotten about since the Third Shinobi War, but desperate situations called for desperate measures. His hand glowed an icy blue, thundering away like a storm in his ears, and he charged forward with his famed speed, knowing Sakura would suffer but deciding it was a small price to pay in face of saving her life.

His target flinched violently as the energy surrounding Kakashi's fist slammed into him before his actual fist did, and he felt ice claw at his heart and travel down his spine —much like needles— causing him to gasp in pain and swiftly drop dead from lung failure.

Kakashi panted with exertion, feeling a big chunk of his reserves vaporise, his hand pressing momentarily at his bleeding shoulder only to be drenched with crimson.

Sakura dropped from the man's hold and her eyes snapped wide open upon impact with the ground, unfocused, terrified and in tremendous pain. Her mouth parted in a silent scream and she convulsed, body twisting and bending, teeth chattering violently and Kakashi felt guilt like he'd never felt before in his life, his body moving to capture her only to be blasted away by a spark of electricity that made his hair stand on end.

Disoriented, and now sufficiently worried (and more than a little scared), he clambered to his feet and stumbled away from an explosive tag meant to move him away from Sakura, but not fast enough to completely avoid the impact of it. His side burned like hell itself as cloth melted into his skin, and he had to resist the scream that threatened to burst through his throat, raw and animalistic. Because beyond the whole _terrorpainshameguiltpain—!_ he was mostly and utterly furious.

He growled, in both agony and anger, his hands coming together in hasty seals that turned the pavement into quicksand in mere seconds, catching one of the men, but not the one now holding his rosette again. And _hellshitdammit would they just leave her alone for one goddamn second—!_

In a fit of blinding desperation, and a wave of concentrated anger and worry as he watched the man race away with Sakura - her body still trembling, pained tears streaming down her cheeks in a display he'd never seen before - he threw himself full force on their target's back — _dangerousdangerousstupid!_ — and was promptly sent crashing into solid rock.

He saw literal stars but he had no time to rest, no time to think, because his target had let go of Sakura and was now brandishing a cackling fist of thunder aimed straight for his heart, features twisted in fury. _Oh,_ the sudden numbing realisation came to him as easy as breathing, it was the end of him, he was going to die in the next three seconds, even as he attempted to roll away, to counter, to defend because _dammit, Sakura—!_

The attack never made it and he didn't see what stopped it, even when his eyes remained open, refusing to shut even in the face of death. Black spots momentarily entered his vision as his head collided with the ragged edge of a rock in his hasty getaway and his sight only came back to him the form of spinning blue light colliding with a nearby post.

A flash of blond later and recognition hit him, Naruto and Sasuke. He had no time to relish in the wave of relief the presence of his former students brought him because Naruto was positively screaming at him, but the ringing sound in his ears was so loud he could barely make out a few words besides _danger_ and _Sakura_ and _getaway right this second!_

In the distance, dark figures raced towards them with a malicious intent so violent it would've made a lesser ninja keel over. But Kakashi was the Copy Ninja and he never wanted to break the vow he made to himself ever again; to always protect his cherished ones.

He grabbed Sakura, albeit roughly, but his eyes weren't quite working correctly just yet and he stumbled a dozen time before his body gained its bearings and then he was racing away as fast as his legs allowed him, deeper and deeper into the forest, towards Konoha, and over the water of the marine port— _away, away, away._

* * *

Sakura's awareness came to the feeling of wind on her exposed skin and the frantic throbbing in her left shoulder. Long strands of blonde hair caressed her arms and tickled her face and eventually, her nose picked up on the familiar scent of her best friend buried beneath layers of an oddly recognisable masculine scent. She blinked, confused, and her eyes cleared enough for her to make out the sight of her village flying behind her and Ino's sure arms wrapped protectively around her.

And then it hit her. "Kakashi!"

Ino startled slightly but kept on running, her face twisted in a grim frown. "—Is alright. For now. We need to get you to Tsunade-sama."

"No!" Sakura tried to twist out of Ino's iron grip, but her chakra wasn't working correctly just yet and Ino's hold didn't budge an inch.

"I'm sorry Sakura," Ino apologised with a grimace and before Sakura had time to comprehend the meaning of Ino's words, everything went black.

* * *

 _Beep… Beep… Beep…_

A soft rustling sound followed the quiet but annoying beeping she heard somewhere above her head, pulsing in tandem with her heart.

She struggled to locate her eyes, to find her muscles. A strange coolness surrounded her instead of the molten heat she expected having been hit by… her thoughts trailed off to a sudden halt.

That's right… she was with Kakashi and everything was hazy and painful and then… she remembered blinding light and dark, dark charcoal eyes pouring into hers… soft blonde hair clouding her vision… Sakura jolted awake, eyes snapping wide open as the events of her latest fight rushed into the forefront of her mind and she was forcefully reminded that Kakashi wasn't there. She tried to locate his chakra, to pinpoint his location, but he was nowhere nearby. Instead, she touched at Ino's familiar lulling stream of purple chakra.

The blonde was asleep in the chair next to her hospital bed, hair mussed up and features twisted in discomfort. She twitched slightly under Sakura's gaze before pupil-less blue irises fluttered open to meet hers. Ino jerked up, "Sakura!" And then the rosette was being engulfed in a tight embrace. "You're awake… oh, sweetheart, I was so worried…"

Sakura blinked, confused as Ino pulled back to look at her face, her fingers running gently through her pink strands. "How long have I been out?"

"Almost a week," Ino said, her relief almost palpable, her nails scratched pleasantly at her scalp.

Sakura's previous worries returned and she sat up despite the pain in her shoulder. "I… Kakashi, where is he— I need—"

Ino's hands came down on her shoulders and forced her to relax back. "Kakashi is okay. I sent him home to get some shut-eye, he'll be back soon, I promise."

The rosette sighed in almost painful relief and settled back, her heartbeat slowing down to a normal rhythm. She watched Ino watch her curiously and waited. Thirty seconds later, Ino spoke. "Did… Did something happen between you and Kakashi?"

Sakura startled at the question and her heart rate skyrocketed again. "W-what do you mean?" She inwardly cursed her stutter and waited with bated breath as Ino's all-seeing eyes roved over her face.

"I don't know," Ino admitted quietly, settling more comfortably into her chair. "I've never… I don't think I've ever seen Kakashi so panicked about anything as much as he was when he showed up on Genma's doorstep with you passed out in his arms."

Sakura felt her cheeks heat up under the scrutiny of her best friend but something else was there… an unmistakable warmth spreading through her chest at the thought that Kakashi cared so much about her. She quickly banished the thought before Ino could clue in on the fact that Sakura loved that Kakashi worried for her so much that his mask crumbled for once.

Needing a quick redirection off this particular conversation, Ino's most recent sentence echoed in her ear. And then Sakura's eyes widened as she recalled waking up in the blonde's hold as they raced away and an important thought rushed back to the forefront of her mind. "Hey— hey wait, I just remembered! Your scent back then— I thought something was off… you smelled like Genma!"

Ino's mouth fell open and then amazingly, her whole face flushed pinker than Sakura's hair. "W-what?"

Sakura took a second to marvel at the fact that Ino was _blushing_ before exploiting it, because it all suddenly made sense. "Oh my god… Ino… is your mystery man Genma?! No way… wow…''

Ino slumped back in her seat, face buried in her hands. "Out of _everything_ , my _scent_ is what gives it away? Give me a break Sakura, you're as bad as Kakashi."

Sakura couldn't help but giggle. "I've worked with Genma a few times, I thought the scent was oddly familiar."

Ino sighed, and a small yet rather sad smile tugged on her lips. "Well, I guess you caught me."

The admission sobered Sakura up and she watched her best friend's face curiously. "How serious is it…?"

"Genma's condition or our relationship?" Ino frowned, and it was only then that Sakura noticed the pain and worry in her friend's gaze and another discovery presented itself, making Sakura feel like an asshole; Ino brought Kakashi up because she was trying to _forget_. Because she was worried sick about Genma and sleep deprived. Sakura had no idea the man was involved.

"What happened to him?" Sakura asked worriedly, hating herself for dimming Ino's mood but needing to know if the man was okay. They weren't close or anything but Sakura enjoyed his occasional company and his rather lewd sense of humour. It'd suck if something happened to him.

Ino's head fell back with a tired sigh and her eyes fixed on the ceiling. "Blood loss, broken hand, dislocated shoulder, second-degree burns, gaping hole in his stomach, a minor concussion, I could go on really."

The rosette frowned. "Jeez, I hope he's okay soon."

"He's getting better," Ino told her and now her eyes were glistening with unshed tears. "If only he didn't look so heartbreaking while doing it."

"I'm sorry." Sakura reached over and grasped Ino's hand in her own, giving it a comforting squeeze. "It'll be okay."

Ino nodded, took a steadying breath and then straightened to face Sakura. "As for how serious it is… we've been together for a while— nine months or so, I think. I love him, I don't know— is it weird?"

By then, the rosette's eyebrows were steadily crawling up her forehead. "Nine months…? Nine months and you never even thought of telling me? Wow. Get out."

The blonde smiled apologetically but shrugged. "You wouldn't tell me who your dream man was… and it never came up in conversation."

Sakura shook her head disbelievingly. "You suck, Ino-pig. My dream man shall remain a mystery for another seven months or so as payback."

"Forehead!" Ino whined, "that's not fair, I told you about Genma, now you have to tell me, I've been dying to know."

"Nuh-uh, I _found out_ , you didn't tell me anything." Sakura stuck her tongue out at the blond, feeling slightly vindictive. "Come back in seven months."

Ino's hand reached over lighting fast and smacked the back of Sakura's head. "You little minx—!"

Sakura burst into giggles just as the door to their hospital room opened and Tsunade walked in with Kakashi behind her, clad in civilian clothes. Both her and the blonde sobered up at the sight of them and Ino rose to bow. "Tsunade-sama,"

Tsunade nodded, shooting Kakashi an odd look which brought Sakura's attention to him. Their eyes met, and what she saw there nearly stole her breath— she could practically feel his relief wafting off of him, and there was this strange look in his irises she had no name for, something like… like he was trying to restrain himself from rushing to her side. It sent her heartbeat into another frenzy that she belatedly realised could be heard on the heart monitor and she was forced to look away from him and calm it down to acceptable levels.

Two suspicious blondes regarded her, much to her chagrin, but neither said anything.

"You're awake," Tsunade stated, moving to her side to check her vitals. Sakura nodded but Tsunade was already turning to Ino. "Shiranui was asking about you, you might want to see what he wants."

Hearing the clear dismissal, Ino heaved herself up off the chair and took her leave.

Sharp marigold eyes turned back to Sakura. "We captured one of the men that were chasing you, he's currently in Ibiki's custody. But until we have more information this case is closed and you're to be under heavy surveillance."

Sakura blinked, surprised. "Heavy surveillance?"

"This is the second time they came for you— they chased you into the heart of the village! I don't want you alone at any time and avoid public places as much as possible. I'm sorry Sakura but I need to protect you." Tsunade lamented, hand settling briefly on Sakura's head before falling away as she turned to leave, only pausing at the doorstep to softly say, "And get some rest. Both of you."

Silence descended on the room, heavy like a physical weight, and Sakura met Kakashi's stormy gaze again and held it as he limped towards her side, only stopping when he reached the guest chair. He didn't sit down.

"Hi." She tried, conscious of her heart rate going up again as his scent dwarfed her senses and his body heat washed over her. "Are you okay?"

A small frown tugged his brows and she had to resist the urge to smooth it with her thumb. She didn't realise she was frowning too until his thumb came up to smooth the space between her eyebrows. "Am I okay…?" He echoed quietly, voice slightly scratchy from lack of use. "Shouldn't _I_ be asking you that?"

"I'm okay," she assured, and her hand found his without conscious thought, squeezing tightly. "Thanks to you."

That same frown further scrunched his brow but his hand squeezed hers back just as tightly. "Thanks to— _Sakura._ " He suddenly growled, his eyes now angry, but not at her, she knew it wasn't at her. "You're here _because_ of me. Thanks to— gods, you're incorrigible."

She stared at him, slightly speechless at his exasperation and obviously misplaced anger. And just like that, blinding indignation was filling _her_ up. "Goddammit Kakashi!" she snarled, letting go of his hand to jab an accusing finger in his chest. "I'm done with the whole guilt thing you have going on! You will _not_ blame yourself for this or so god help me I'll beat you to a pulp and put you in a hospital bed!"

The rosette thought she heard him mutter 'at least we'll be even then' but she couldn't be sure for he suddenly dropped onto the chair behind him and let out a weary breath that for once made him sound and look his age. "I'm sorry I just…" He dragged a hand down his face and let out another sigh. "You were so helpless and I was… and then that asshole he… you were crying and I wanted to rip him to shreds but I _couldn't and I never hated myself so fucking much."_

Sakura felt strangely touched and this time she did reach and smooth the frown on his face with her thumb. "Silly," she murmured affectionately, "I don't blame you, they're out of our league— we were outnumbered. Just thank god we're both alive and move on."

Kakashi sighed dejectedly but gave a small nod before picking up a carton bag off the floor and presenting it to her. "Here, I brought you some clothes."

Sakura tried to conceal her surprise as she shuffled through the bag's contents to find her civilian clothes, chest bindings, and a fresh pair of panties that had her face heating up because _god dammit_ did he have to be so thoughtful as to go as far as to bring her clean underwear?

She slapped his arm half heartedly as she pulled her underwear out for him to see and accused, "Pervert."

The corner of his mouth twitched up and he raised a mischievous eyebrow, his glumness momentarily lifting. "I didn't actually look at them Sakura —as tempting as it was, I could've sworn I glimpsed a Strawberry Shortcake one— I just brought what my hand landed on. Didn't know you're the lace type of girl," he teased as his eyes moved to the black underwear in her grasp.

Sakura felt her cheeks flush and she quickly thrust the garment back in the bag, green eyes glaring at him. "It was a gift from Ino."

Kakashi nodded in mock thoughtfulness. "Nice. So the big question now is, is't Strawberry Shortcake or lace?"

The rosette couldn't believe what she was hearing and he let out a flustered squeal. "Kakashi! You can't just ask a girl that!"

He laughed, and it was a nice change of atmosphere so she decided she let it slide as he replied, "Right, my bad, sorry."

"No more teasing," she grumbled with a slight pout and slumped back against her pillows with a huff, only earning herself a chuckle from the copy ninja. "Alright, alright, no more teasing."

A comfortable silence filled the space and Sakura relaxed, only to startle as soon as her mind drifted to upcoming events. "What day is it?!"

Kakashi jumped slightly at her tone and shuffled through his pocket to retrieve a pocket-sized calendar. "I think it's the tenth— or eleventh, why?"

"The festival!" Sakura cried dejectedly, "it's on the thirteenth, Tsunade-shishou's inauguration anniversary!"

Kakashi stared at her, almost incomprehensible as she rattled on. "I still haven't bought a yukata, and I promised the girls we'll shop together _oh no…_ I don't even have a date! Think Naruto would agree to go with me again… aw man…"

And then Kakashi burst her bubble."Sakura did you not hear what Tsunade said? You're not going anywhere."

She gaped at him, scandalised. "What? No! I'm, definitely going."

"You can't, it's not safe." He insisted, "I'm not letting you go alone into a place so crowded."

The rosette stared at him, speechless. "But Kakashi... it's the yearly festival— I've never once missed it! I can't start now!"

He levelled her with an unimpressed look. "You're not going alone," he stressed and was that a glint in his eyes?

Sakura was floored. "Is that your indirect way of letting me know I can't go without _you, kaa-san?_ "

The glint turned positively mischievous. "Maybe."

She glared at him. "Why don't you just make things simple and ask me to be your date, like a normal human being would, Kakashi?"

His eyes widened and she took it as a small victory. "Wait— that's not—"

"Not what you meant? You're a terrible liar." She stuck her tongue out at him despite the fact that her heart was galloping now. "Come on, go on, I might just consider it."

"Wait," he said, and his surprise was evident in his voice. She told herself the almost hopeful look in his gaze was her imagination playing tricks on her, because _no way._ "Do you _want_ me to be your date?"

Well, to hell with it. "I don't know, maybe. I've never been with an older man before. I'm curious."

He blinked owlishly at her, it was almost hilarious. " _Oh."_

"Are you going to ask me or not?" She pressed, and by now she was _sure_ he could hear her heart beating, if not see its outline through her hospital gown. She must've gone crazy sometime during her coma, she decided.

Kakashi was silent for several moments before finally saying, "I guess… I mean, that way I could make sure you're safe and all… would you be my date—"

"Yes!" And _no,_ she didn't blush at the fact that she interrupted him before he was done talking, and it was alright anyway because even when she was grinning like a dork, she knew he was, too.

* * *

 **Well, guess who updated early? I hope you enjoyed this 6.3K monster. Things are moving along and will become intense soon. So stay tuned!**

 **Drop me a line or two, let me know your thoughts, I'd really greatly appreciate it!**

 **Songs:- (Don't laugh but)**

 **1) Break The Ice - Britney Spears**

 **2) All Time Low - Jon Bellion**

 **Beta'd by the beautiful Denilmo x**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Clarity**

Kakashi often prided himself on being able to think on the spot, fabricate stories and pull together loose threads in an instant. After all, even he couldn't deny his own genius. But there were a few instances in which he was left scrambling to catch himself before he slammed face-first into the pavement. Such as when Sakura had metaphorically snatched the carpet right from beneath him in the hospital room and left him gaping like a fish out of water.

She may have invaded his thoughts, and she sure as hell had seized his heart; maybe irreversibly, and although he liked to fantasise about at least being with her, he hadn't considered that seriously at all. Mostly, he just didn't believe a young, beautiful thing like herself would give him the time of the day. He thought of himself as a jaded old man.

Twenty-four hours had passed since then and his high slowly wore away with time. Had she been joking? What if this was her way of teasing him? She didn't _really_ consider it a real date… did she?

Kakashi had the urge to let out an audible groan, but he had a feeling that would send the only other person in the hospital's waiting room —an old woman with greying hair, eyeing him nervously above her book— scrambling for her life. He knew he was intimidating but seriously, was he _that_ scary?

Her eyes darted left and right in apparent distress, and finally, settled on something behind his shoulder. When it lingered there, he curiously followed her gaze and saw Sakura standing by the door in the simple red civilian dress he brought her, skin still sickly pale and looking a little too thin. But then their eyes locked, and his shoulders relaxed because despite everything, her eyes were still the same shade of vibrant green.

Getting up on stiff feet, Kakashi approached her with almost timid steps. He was torn between wanting to keep his distance and hugging her to confirm that she was indeed safe and whole. At the end, he did neither. "Sakura. Ready to go?" he asked; sotto voce.

He could still feel the old woman's eyes burning into his back as the rosette nodded and fell into step with him, drifting closer to his side than he thought was socially acceptable for friends, but was that even what they were at this point? He shoved that thought out of his mind.

He had hurt her. The image of it was burned vividly into his brain: tears cascading down her cheeks, her pained cry as his jutsu tore through her, too, and her head colliding with the pavement as she landed roughly on her side. None of it was avoidable but knowing so didn't make him feel any better.

He didn't want her to smile at him in that endearing way of hers every time he allowed his head to turn in her direction; he didn't think he deserved it. To make matters worse, his hand still throbbed dully with the ache to touch her. He wanted to let the back of his fingers brush softly over her cheek, to tilt her chin up, kiss her, and find out if her lips tasted as good as they looked - if they were as warm or as soft as the rest of her. And every time she smiled, it grew a little harder to resist doing so.

The wind was slightly on the chilly side today and he was grateful for substituting his usual top and jounin vest with a cotton, white t-shirt and a black leather jacket. He supposed he did look rather intimidating when the mask was added to the mix. His hiati-ate was absent today so perhaps the woman from the hospital room hadn't known he was a ninja.

He pondered these thoughts to distract himself off his company— who had to go ahead and shiver, forcing his attention back to her despite his efforts.

Well, there goes his jacket. He smiled ruefully as he shrugged it off and presented it to her; _if it had been anyone else he would have made them pay for it dearly_ . Sakura stared at him with wide green eyes as they slowed to a stop and he wrapped her in it. "Here. No more shivering." He ignored the way her blush made his stomach knot and focused instead on rubbing his hands along her arms to capture her warmth.

"T-thank you," she stammered, flushing a deeper shade of pink, making her sallow cheeks look slightly more healthy and lively.

Kakashi decided losing his jacket had been worth it after all, for the way she was looking at him now was like a scene straight out of one of his fantasies. "Don't mention it."

They walked in silence, a mood similar to the darkened skies settling over their surroundings. Kakashi could practically smell the coming rain, not that the swollen clouds above weren't enough indication.

Kakashi wasn't particularly disheartened by that; he loved rain. Everything seemed cleaner, fresher. But ultimately, that wasn't where his thoughts were particularly heading. He was in too much of a sombre mood to enjoy the weather.

Starting today, he was to stay with Sakura. Tsunade had decided it was too risky to leave her apprentice unattended when a bunch of crazy scientist killers were on her tail, and concluded her former teacher and team captain should take it upon himself to help protect her. She went as far as stationing Yamato as her watch during the night.

Kakashi was grateful for the extra protection Sakura was receiving, but he had another dilemma: was the attraction between them mutual? Or was it just him slowly losing his mind?

Not that having the answer would make anything less complicated. He had no delusions about the way the public would view a relationship between him and Sakura. His teaching days were a long distant memory forgotten by most, but it was sure to resurface were he to get romantically involved with someone who was once his 'student'. Maybe by name. He didn't kid himself into thinking he was a teacher figure to his only female teammate. The only thing he imparted on her had been teamwork (and he was damn grateful she took that lesson to heart) but if Sakura had a teacher it was, hands down, Tsunade.

The person who had shaped her into the amazing woman she was today— the brilliant kunoichi and unrivalled medic— was none other than the fifth Hokage. He was merely her superior. Well, he _was_ her superior once. Now, they were the same rank but working in different divisions. He in assassination and occasionally tracking; her a medic and a poison expert. And on rare occasions, like the one that passed, they would pair up on an undercover mission. Unsurprisingly, those were the most fun.

Something wet landed on the tip of his nose and his head jerked up in time for another to land on his cheek. The rain was finally here, it seemed. It started as a stuttering spray, drawing small circles on the dry pavement and gradually progressed into a pour that quickly drenched his hair and made it poke into his eyes.

One look at Sakura, at the displeased line of her lips as wet strands fell in her face, at the water droplets sliding down her skin and they were jogging towards her house at a speed that would probably get them a scolding from Tsunade were she to see them since Sakura was prohibited from using her chakra yet. They made it in record time, but by then Kakashi was drenched and Sakura was giggling softly as he shook the water droplets out of his hair in a close imitation of his ninken. The rosette was fairly dry— she had used his jacket for cover - and now she extended her arm to hand it back to him, sopping wet.

Kakashi couldn't even find it in himself to be exasperated, which is how he once again arrived at the conclusion that he had it bad for her. It was more apparent when he nearly followed her into her bedroom; sleeping in the same bed for weeks had gotten him so accustomed to her presence it was a little worrying. Since when was he comfortable sharing someone's intimate space? His mind was too busy running in frantic circles he didn't register the flying towel heading his way until it landed haphazardly on his head.

A moment of silence stretched between them as his eyes shifted in stunned disbelief to meet her minutely shaking figure. A second later, the rosette was holding to the door frame to keep herself up against the force of her laughter. "You— you should've seen— your face—!"

The towel slipped off his head and he had enough presence of mind to catch it in time and save the remaining shreds of his dignity.

Sakura wiped at moist eyes, her cheeks flushed, and tried to look composed as she scolded him. "That could've been a kunai, Kakashi! Jeez, aren't you quite out of it?" A small giggle slipped through her lips at the end of her sentence and she pursed them to stop the no doubt endless stream that fought to burst through, too. "Come on, you should probably dry off before you catch a cold."

He looked at the towel in his hands for a few moments, wondering how the hell he was going to cope with the next few days if it was already this bad at minute one. Kakashi only looked up when Sakura's legs came into his line of sight; long, creamy and very shapely— enough so that he found himself staring.

Kakashi barely held himself from visibly startling when the towel was yanked out of his hold and tossed over his head one more time. "Here, let me."

She fluffed the fabric across his scalp, momentarily blinding him as she rubbed and puffed the towel against his head like one might do a child's. The material lifted, and with it his disorientation, and suddenly he could see again— she was close. That was the first thing his mind noted, so close he could make out the details of her endless green eyes: the brilliant strokes of emerald, gold, and brown, warm and shining with mirth. From his proximity, he could even make out the faint freckles dotting her cheeks and the slight moistness of her lips that made them look enticingly kissable.

She smelled faintly of flowers and fresh water, her natural scent blending almost alluringly with the environment surrounding her, mixing with her body heat to create an intoxicating mix that called him in like a drug. Kakashi was abruptly and thoroughly entranced for perhaps the first time in his life, and without thinking, he reached and carefully tucked a loose strand of slightly damp hair behind her ear. The gesture was too intimate, too soft and affectionate to deny, and Kakashi hurriedly dropped his hand, feeling the strange need to apologise for overstepping his boundaries, but not really regretting it.

Some belated realisation seemed to cross through Sakura's mind then and her eyes hesitantly dropped from his to his masked mouth and lingered there for seconds that seemed to stretch on forever.

Kakashi held his breath. Had they been any other pair in this position, he would've sworn they were about to kiss.

But that wouldn't be the case. Of course not. Could she possibly—

Something soft, plump and pliable pressed against his mouth and it took his all not to freeze up in shock. It was merely a soft lip-brush, but it left him light-headed, and just as Kakashi began to reciprocate, still in a state of bewilderment, Sakura pulled back to smile shyly at him. It was so endearing, so... fragile in a sense, he almost pulled her in for another kiss.

Her quiet voice broke through his desirous train of thought. "Thank you."

"For what?" He was glad he didn't stammer, that would've been embarrassing.

"For bringing me back safely, silly," she said, taking a step back from him. He immediately missed her warmth, but he was too busy pondering when gratitude between the two of them involved a kiss.

She wasn't exactly helping his conception of their upcoming date and how much of a date it was. Feeling as if he might do something increasingly uncharacteristic (like pulling his mask down, tangling his fingers in her hair, and drawing her mouth to his again to show her exactly what a real kiss was like) he shoved his palms in his pockets and returned her smile. "You're welcome."

He hadn't noticed it until it lifted, but Sakura had been nervous to take that step. The slight tension lining her shoulders slowly bled out and the minute tightening around her eyes relaxed. What did all that mean? Kakashi contemplated seriously asking her.

However, a loud bark suddenly echoed from outside, completely shattering the silence, and then the spell broke and Kakashi felt his heart stutter out of rhythm at the implications of their exchange. They hurried into the kitchen, both trying to remain casual, her straight for the fridge and him towards the tea kettle, as if this was the most normal of days.

Unfortunately, he was acutely aware of the blush staining her cheeks as she shuffled mindlessly through her fridge's contents. There was just something about that girl when she blushed that tore away at his self-control. Acting as if he, too, wasn't having a mild heart failure, he set the water boiling and started retrieving cups and tea from the cupboard.

It felt silly that he, the Copy Ninja, was having what some might call 'butterflies'. In fact, he nearly scoffed aloud at the thought. It was strange. He had lusted for women before, but never felt an emotional attachment to them - never craved their affection or their attention. More importantly, he never longed for commitment.

What he felt for Sakura was a strange mix of an overwhelming sense of belonging and want, coupled with nearly unrestrained sexual tension. He wanted to push her against the fridge, plunder her mouth until she was breathless, and sample the taste of her skin just as much as he wanted to hold her, to simply be close to her. Both feelings crashed inside him, overwhelmed him, left him conflicted and strangely at a loss for what to do.

Now that he allowed himself to accept his feelings, it wasn't hard to run unrestrained with his thoughts. Sakura was a gorgeous woman— one that had never been touched, at least not intimately. It made him want to lay her on a bed and thoroughly explore her and show her what she'd been missing. But before he could start to feel shame at thinking of her that way already, the tea kettle let out a whistle and he began to mechanically prepare tea for both of them.

Was it wrong that he wanted her that way, too? What if... what if she felt the same way? At that thought, something like electricity lanced through him. What if Sakura fantasised about him, too? What if Sakura craved his touch and his kiss the way he did hers? Feeling his face grow alarmingly warm, he pushed these thoughts out of his mind for a later date.

When he carried the tea to the living room, he found Sakura had already laid a shirt for him on the couch and was munching on biscuits, seated comfortably in her armchair. He handed her the tea, ignoring the way his heart-fluttered when their fingers brushed. Instead, Kakashi inspected the dark t-shirt with the orange sign that awaited him and sighed at the obvious signature colour. "Naruto?"

Sakura smiled. "What can I say, his clothes are comfy."

"Thief," he teased as he quickly shed his wet shirt and replaced it with the dry one, "Do you steal clothes from everyone?"

A light pink dusted the rosette's cheeks but she shrugged unrepentantly. "Just from Ino and Naruto... and Tenten... and Hinata once... I may also have one of Yamato taichou's vests lying somewhere."

Kakashi snorted and dropped on her couch, gesturing at his discarded shirt as he shook his head ruefully. "I'm never going to see this again, am I?"

Her lips twisted into a shy yet equally teasing smile. "Probably not."

He grinned beneath the mask as he cushioned his head against the armrest and relaxed, pulling Icha Icha out. He really could get used to this.

* * *

Sakura's queen-sized bed had never felt colder or emptier before.

She lay tangled in the sheets, twisting restlessly and just unable to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. The absence of the body warmth of a certain person was pronounced in a way it had never been before, and her sheets lacked the comforting, earthy scent that accompanied him. Sakura huffed. It wasn't fair. They'd only shared a room for a little over a fortnight. Why the sudden drastic change?

And yet, when she listened carefully for the quiet, peaceful breaths drifting from just outside her cracked bedroom door, the tense muscles of her shoulders relaxed.

Kakashi was here, sound asleep on her teal-coloured couch, the rhythmic sound of his breathing calming and familiar.

A part of her —the one growing inch by inch the more time she spent in Kakashi's presence— wanted her to get up and wrap herself in his arms to be engulfed by the familiar warmth of his embrace. But Sakura would never do something so scandalous.

However, a few hours later, when she woke up trembling from the after-mirage of her most recent nightmare, she was ready to take that back.

While Sakura sat up and struggled to regulate her breathing, gulping oxygen down as measured as she could get her lungs to cooperate, she heard a soft knock on the door followed by a raspy, "Sakura? Are you okay?"

The door was hesitantly pushed open an inch to reveal Kakashi in the doorway, hair mussed, eyes half-lidded and ever-present mask firmly in place.

Sakura felt her shoulders curve in embarrassment and she looked away, her heart slowing down a beat. "Y-yeah. Sorry, did I wake you up?"

Kakashi let out a soft exhale and invited himself into her room, silently padding towards her bed and settling on the small space beside her. "Bad dream?" he countered, without bothering to answer her question.

Sakura nodded, relaxing further when his fingers gently moved damp hair strands out of her eyes, fingertips brushing briefly across her temple in the process. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Her dream had been just one of the many that involved Kakashi having a very close and vivid brush with death. This time it involved Orochimaru's base and a substitution jutsu that put him between the inhuman creature and Yamato-taichou. What followed was inhumanly elongated nails taking the shape of blades and piercing Kakashi's left shoulder and neck, causing blood to sprout like a river and spray the enemy.

Sakura had no idea what happened next because the horrific sight of Kakashi's neck being all but slit open sent her into a panic so profound it knocked her awake and breathless.

She trembled slightly recalling the still vivid images, goosebumps breaking out across her skin, and her heart began galloping again—

"Hey, shh." The back of his fingers fleetingly brushed across her cheek in a rather uncharacteristically intimate gesture. "You don't have to say anything."

When all Sakura managed was scooting towards the edge of her bed in silent invitation, Kakashi's eyes creased in a familiar smile and slid into the space next to her, back resting comfortably against her headboard and arm wrapping around her shoulder. He massaged the muscle there with sure fingers, kneading out the few knots there until all the tension bled out of her.

Sakura let out a rather miserable sigh and let her head drop against his chest. He was warm and safe and close and gorgeously alive and well and Sakura's heart wanted to both race out of her chest and be lulled into a familiar sense of security.

He broke the silence first. "Hey, Sakura?"

"Hmm?" She grunted, nuzzling his neck in a way that was entirely too comfortable, even for them.

"Can I ask you something?"

His tone made her shoulders tense a little again and she forced them to relax even when her heart started galloping again. "What is it?"

"Have you..." he trailed off, suddenly unsure before he regained the courage to finish his sentence, "have you been having any... weird dreams, lately?"

All oxygen left her lungs in a shuddering exhale. It was like someone poured an ice-cold bucket of water over her head and soaked her through to her bones. There was no hiding the way every muscle in her body tensed as if about to face off an enemy.

It was Kakashi that exhaled sharply then, his fist curling in his lap.

Both remained silent and tense for long moments until Sakura managed to find her voice, swallowing thickly against her tight throat. "W-what do y-you mean?" Her voice hitched slightly as she stuttered over her words, heart banging briskly against her ribcage and sweat beading the back of her neck.

Kakashi slowly clenched and unclenched his fist, straining the tendons hard enough she heard a few joints pop. And then he exhaled again, slow and measured, and Sakura had never found Kakashi particularly frightening since that day she was assigned to him when she was a twelve-year-old genin, but suddenly she felt goosebumps break out across her skin and adrenaline pump heavily through her veins.

She felt sick.

"I mean," Kakashi said slowly, voice deceptively soft, "have you been having strange dreams about me…?"

This was it, Sakura was going to be sick all over her sheets. "Wha— what brought this up?"

Oh gods, _oh gods_ why would he even ask that? What could've clued him?

"Because, Sakura," and maybe it was her imagination, but his voice seemed to waver slightly at her name, "I've been having strange ones about you."

It was that same feeling of cold water being dumped over her head. A wave of dread washed over her and her stomach knotted tightly and uncomfortably. "I'm—" it felt like she had swallowed her tongue "-Wha— what?!"

It was then he turned to look at her, charcoal eyes infinitely darker in the dimness of her room and more vulnerable than she'd ever seen them. "When they first started I didn't pay it much thought until I dreamt of Sasuke leaving you on that bench and I knew then something was weird."

Sakura's hand trembled slightly as she grasped his arm and squeezed it hard if only to steady herself. "Y-you mean— all this time, you've been… you've been having dreams about my past, too?!" Her voice rose in pitch towards the end and a delirious laugh bubbled through her throat as she shook her head in disbelief. " _Oh gods_ … _oh, no_ … this isn't happening…"

Sakura hadn't even realised she was talking to herself then, shoulders shaking and on the verge of an anxiety attack.

Kakashi said nothing, facing away from her again. And then... "When you started having constant nightmares, most which seemed to have involved me, I had my suspicions… So it's true, huh?"

Sakura fought to regain control of her breathing, feeling her heart slow down a notch. It was okay… it'd be okay, it had to. So they were both having dreams, big deal! They would just have to talk this out rationally and figure a way to stop those dreams from happening.

When Sakura gave a jerky nod of confirmation, Kakashi let out a dry, bitter laugh. "This explains so much."

Sakura looked at him with wide green eyes and he turned to face her again, his eyebrow arching, "That day in the forest, back on Naka's island when you woke up crying, the many more times you'd start screaming my name in your sleep. You saw me almost die every time did you not?"

Her mouth dried and she swallowed, unable to answer.

"And tonight again, what was it this time?" He carried on, sounding bitter and angry, and Sakura couldn't fathom if it was directed at her or him or some third, equally unreasonable source. "Tell me."

She gathered every ounce of courage she possessed and whispered, "Some ANBU mission with Yamato-taichou… you… you stepped in and the creature c-cut your throat o-open— i-it had really long nails." She paused to swallow against her incredibly dry throat, horrific images flashing behind her now closed eyelids.

She whimpered, helpless to restrain the little distressed sound as she chewed harshly on her lip and buried her face in his shoulder, the tears coming suddenly. "I don't kn-now w-why I have those dreams, K-Kakashi." She hiccuped, praying to any god that was listening that this wouldn't ruin whatever was brewing between them. "But _I'm so sorry. I-I'm s-so sorry."_

And she was, more than he'd ever know. Not because it felt like it was her own fault, but because she was just incredibly sorry he was laid bare to her like that, stripped of all the shells surrounding him— of the hard walls he used to shield himself from the world. He had suffered more than anyone had any right to, and to have all that pain presented to someone like some messed up movie, it was so unfair.

And then the back of his index and middle finger were brushing tears off her left cheek in soft, soothing strokes that left the skin there burning as he shushed her. "I'm not mad at you, why are you crying?"

"B-because— it's not fair! It's not fair to you!" She grit her teeth as she pulled away to face him with glassy emerald eyes and flushed cheeks, angrily swatting hair out of her face. "You don't deserve t-to-to— to be exposed like that! I didn't do anything to deserve that insight into your life— You've been through _so much_ it's crazy and goddammit Kakashi you're like no other man I've ever met and I'm just _so sorry_ that you didn't have a choice in whether I know!"

He was staring at her with slightly wide, wonder-filled eyes which, for some bizarre reason, sent her into another fit, and her fists started trembling again. " _I fucking hate it._ Every time I wanted to tell you and I couldn't because I was so scared of what you'd say, Kakashi— I thought I was going crazy! I couldn't tell _anyone_ because a part of me was terrified that those dreams were real and I _didn't want_ to expose you any further!"

"Hey—" his attempts to shush her were brushed aside as she barrelled on, the dam that was holding in her thoughts falling apart, causing everything she'd been swallowing to come rushing out of her mouth as fast as she could talk, with no hopes of stopping it.

"No, listen, you don't understand! Here I was with the knowledge of all this shit you went through in your life, with nothing held back, with every emotion you've felt choking my lungs to suffocation, you, who never failed to be there for everyone even when you were painfully alone your whole life, how is that fair—!"

Sakura's body seized up altogether when fingers tangled in her pink locks and masked lips suddenly met her own, engulfing her mouth in a kiss.

Time seemed to slow down and the quiet nightlife drifting through her window faded into blissful nothingness as his lips moved gently against hers, setting her skin ablaze. It was an innocent kiss, but nothing about it was remotely tame. Neither his sharp intake of breath against her skin nor the shuddering breath that left her when they parted broke through the loud pounding of her heart in her ears.

Her eyes remained firmly shut, blissful, _disbelieving_ because Kakashi had just kissed her and it made her toes curl and it was a real kiss unlike the peck she had given him that morning and oh gods, _he kissed her_ —

Something soft, warm, and incredibly smooth met her lips and she gasped, her eyes snapping wide open in shock to be met by the sight of Kakashi's closed ones and what she could see of his exposed nose at this angle.

Warmth like nothing she'd ever felt before enveloped her chest, and her stomach twisted pleasantly as Kakashi's fingers twisted in her hair, fisting the strands and he slanted his mouth hotly over hers, turning what was previously an innocent kiss into something scalding and wonderful. Her eyes shut tightly as his tongue swiped across her lower lip and poked into her mouth to caress hers experimentally.

Sakura exhaled sharply through her nose as she tasted him on her tongue, his breath fanning across her skin like fire. Her hands fisted the hem of his cotton t-shirt and tugged, barely swallowing a moan against the toe-curling, stomach-flipping, dizzying, absolutely _exhilarating_ sensation of his mouth on hers. And it was like she was falling, falling, falling to a world of emotions so profound they left her light-headed.

There was nothing quite like kissing him. It was hard to explain but it felt strangely like coming home. Like her whole life was planned event by event, moulded and shaped into what it was to lead up to this specific moment in time, with them in her bed, engulfed in the three a.m. darkness, his fingers lost in her hair the way her breath was lost in her lungs.

It all came to her with sudden, frightening clarity— that this was what she wanted, where she _belonged._ She wasn't a lost girl feeling around blindly in the dark, she could _see_ it now, that by some crazy, inexplainable force of nature he was destined for her. And it scared the shit out of her. But it stood that she could have kissed him forever and some more and been content with it.

When they parted, not only were her lungs screaming for air but her skin from head to toe was flushed and tingling, and her head was spinning alarmingly fast.

Kakashi's lips pressed one last peck at the corner of her lips, followed by another on her cheek and finally on her temple over the arch of her brow. He paused to deeply inhale the scent of her shampoo and then exhaled slowly. "Maybe this is something bigger than the both of us that's causing this."

That wasn't hard to believe seeing as a kiss from him had nearly reduced her to an incoherent mess of emotions while simultaneously making her feel like she was seeing for the first time in her life.

His thumb brushed across her cheekbone in a soothing motion and he pulled her to his chest so that her forehead rested against his shoulder.

"Hmm." Sakura hummed her agreement, a feeling of contentment settling in her bones as she relaxed against him. "…now what?"

She felt him smile against her temple, bare cheek against her head. "Now we see where this leads us."

* * *

 ** _Word Count: 5,300 words_**

 ** _Guess who's still alive. Hi guys, I know it's been about four months but they're been absolutely insane four months. After returning from vacation I got busy with uni, and then my mother had an accident which left me with a lot of work, and then a family member got hospitalised and suffers from brain cancer. These are just the main events._**

 ** _Now this chapter... I hate this chapter. Not only because I wrote five different versions of it with five different scenarios but because I had reread it no lesser than ten times and, yeah, I hate it._**

 ** _Despite that, I hope you enjoy this. It's a bit slow paced but I needed to get the dreams out of the way for now!_**

 ** _If you have any questions or comments, drop me a line. You can also find me on Tumblr: bouncyirwin._**

 ** _Thank you for the amazing feedback I've recieved for this story so far, I really never imagined this little project of mine would get so much love. I'm eternally grateful!_**

 **Songs:-**

 **1) Remember Who I Was - James Arthur**

 **2) Kiss Me - Ed Sheeran**

 **Beta'd by the best of the best: Denilmo.**


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